


anywhere i go, there you are

by mysterytwin



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: College AU, F/M, Fluff, Mild Language, Modern AU, Sukka, and it's one of my fave tropes so why not right?, here we go everybody, mutual attraction and pining is the only way to go with this ship, this is so cliche and made up of bets and coffee shops and christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-11 17:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7900741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterytwin/pseuds/mysterytwin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're both just friends in college until they're not. </p><p>[alternatively — maybe if circumstances were different, maybe if choosing the perfect moment wasn't so hard, things could be different.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. did it hurt?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet and Sokka isn't sure what to feel about it.

**sokka – 0**  
**suki – ll**

It's late evening when Sokka descends out of the old, rusty bus, his eyes adjusting to his new surroundings. It feels like he's on another planet.

It's nothing like back home, always cold and no cars around. Here it's like the apartment buildings line up to form a pattern and the air is designed to make him cough. It's a lot different.

But that doesn't matter now. He's going to college. He'd already registered online, so he was good to go. Sokka carries his things (not much: one box and a suitcase full of clothes) to the building where he's supposed to live in. He's heard it's better than the other apartments around town.

It's eerily quiet inside the building and there's almost no one to be seen. Well, _almost_. There's a girl who's carrying a box, probably moving in, as well. Sokka heads for the stairs the same time she does and they walk side by side in silence. It's not really awkward, but it definitely could be better.

He catches a glimpse of her face when they found a corner to face another flight of stairs. _She's cute_ , he thinks to himself. _Maybe I should go talk to her. A friend would be nice._

But he doesn't. Not yet. Pretty girls don't usually like guys like him, no matter how much he'd like to think so. At least, no one liked him in high school. But there was Yue…

_No. She's gone. You can miss her, but she's gone, Sokka. You know that._

They reach the third floor and Sokka decides that this might be his chance to talk to the girl. But what to say? Hello? Does he just tell her his name? Come on, hurry, she's leaving! She's looking for her key! Say _something_!

"Did it hurt?" he blurts out in a rush, watching the girl pause. She turns around slowly, and _damn_ , she's really, _really_ pretty.

Her eyes, a fierce shade of blue, narrow, sharpening with each second that ticks by. "It will if you continue that joke."

Sokka rubs the back of his neck. "So…no?"

She shakes her head. "I'll give you another shot. Try again."

"My name's Sokka," he says, smiling. He gestures to the fan she's holding in one hand. "Not a _fan_ of jokes, huh?"

She rolls her eyes. "I'm going to ignore that. I'm Suki. From Kyoshi."

He's heard of that place before, with its amazing food and peaceful thriving, but it's always been too far to travel by foot. And besides, he never really had time for traveling.

"I've heard it's nice there," he says, adjusting his grip on the box. "The people, too. I've heard people from Kyoshi look pretty."

She smiles. "Was that an indirect compliment?"

His eyes widen. "Yes! I mean, no! I mean," he sighs, shoulders slumping. "If it's okay, I think you're really pretty. There. I said it."

"You don't look too bad yourself," she says. "Could use a little fixing, though."

It's his turn to roll his eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny."

"Thanks," she tells him. Looking at her watch, she adds, "Well, I'm gonna go unpack."

"I can help if you want," he offers as she fumbles with her key.

There's a click and Suki opens her door. "I'll manage."

"Oh," he says, grabbing his own key and opening his door. "Nice meeting you."

"You, too, Sokka," she says before closing the door behind her.

He sighs, knowing he hadn't made the best first impression in the world. Maybe he'll see her again and make up for it. Yeah. That's a nice thought.

* * *

He gets a call from Katara at two in the morning. Sokka curses under his breath, making a mental note to change his ringtone. His fingers fumble and search for his phone, which he finds underneath the pillow.

"Katara, what is it?" he asks angrily.

"Sokka, hey! How are you?" her voice cuts through the line.

"Katara, what time is it there?" he asks impatiently, hoping she realizes that she called at a very horrible time.

"Four in the afternoon, why?" There's a pause from the other side of line. "…oh. _Oh_. It must be like two in the morning for you, sorry."

"You better be," he mutters. "Anyway, why'd ya call?"

"I'm assuming you've eaten since you can't last two hours without doing so, but have you showered? Unpacked? Done the laundry?"

He nods his head, half-listening, then stops. "Laundry? What laundry?"

Sokka hears her sigh. "The laundry, you know, the clothes you didn't want to clean before you left. You said you would just wash it there. Have you done it?"

He stays silent, his eyes wandering over to the pile of clothes in the corner, all waiting to be washed. How could he have forgotten?

"Sokka! You forgot, didn't you?"

"Well, okay, look, I may have forgotten, but what does that matter? I can always do it tomorrow," he says, standing up.

"You'll forget, you know you will," she tells him. There's a voice from the other side of the line (probably Dad), but he can't make it out. "Look, I have to go, but just go do the laundry. It won't take long. You'll get all the beauty sleep you need afterwards."

"Fine," he says, gathering all the clothes and putting them in a small basket from the corner. "Night, sis."

He sighs, opening the door. Sokka makes his way to the laundry room, singing a song he didn't know all the words to. (Katara probably does.) He switches the light on, stuffing all the clothes into the washing machine.

He sings even louder, just to entertain himself. The whirring of the machine gets a little louder, and so does his voice. Sokka walks around the room, yawning mid-song and stretching his arms. Then he sings again.

And that's when the door swings open, making him jump. There's a girl standing at the door, holding it open.

"Oh, hey, did you forget to do the laundry, too?" he asks, trying to sound casual and not freaked out.

She — oh, hey, it's the girl from earlier! Her name's Suki, right? — stares at him and smiles sweetly. A little too sweetly.

"No, actually. I came here to tell you that the walls are extremely thin and everyone can hear you singing off-key at the top of your lungs. And I hope you know that it's almost three in the morning and I'm very tired, so please, for the love of god, Sokka, was it? Don't sing again."

"Oh, sorry," he says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't realize."

She crosses her arms. "Of course you didn't. But I think my eardrums accept your apology."

He smiles a little. "Thanks, Suki."

"Just…don't sing again, okay? Save us all from your off-key, pretty bad, quite horrible, out of tune—"

"I get it. I'm not the best singer in the world," he cuts her off.

"—can't-save-your-life, definitely not the best singing," she finishes with a knowing smile. "Everyone can hear you."

"I think you've mentioned that already," he says, hearing the alarm of the washing machine. He grabs the basket and starts to fold the clothes.

"Oh, and I might also want to keep my voice down when talking on the phone," she says a little softer. He turns pink. "Anyway, I'll leave you to whatever you're doing. Good night, Sokka."

She leaves without another word, the door closing behind her. Sokka doesn't know whether to be extremely flustered, glad she told him about the walls, or angry she commented on his singing.

Probably all three. That girl had a lot to say, didn't she? Well, whatever was happening to him, he couldn't shake off the feeling of excitement when he realized that he would see her again eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu at superishs.tumblr.com!!


	2. don't look at me like that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suki's luck runs out. In terms of both coffee shops and crushes.

**sokka – l**   
**suki – ll**

How unbelievable.

Suki's luck is the absolute worst. She has to get to class in an hour, but she'd forgotten to charge her laptop the night before, from using all the battery during her flight from Kyoshi, so now she's at a table in the coffee shop, waiting for the guy she met yesterday to leave.

She knew he didn't know it — that Sokka guy was completely oblivious — but his table was right next to the only plug in the entire coffee shop. And she really, _really_ needed to charge her laptop. (The electricity flow of the plug in her room is really slow.)

She _needed_ that plug.

(No matter how good-looking he was. Did she just think that? Nope. No. No way. Not happening.)

So she stands up, her laptop clutched to her chest and the charger in one hand. She walks over to his table, slamming the charger on top. Sokka jumps in surprise, his eyes widening.

"I need to borrow that plug," she says, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. "Please. My class starts in an hour and I really need to charge my laptop—"

"Okay," he answers, shrugging. "I'm not using it or anything."

"Thanks," she says, plugging the charger in and connecting the other end. She sits down across him, pretending to be interested in her fingers.

"You could've just asked," he says finally, staring at her.

"Well, you could've just moved," Suki answers, raising her eyebrows.

"Someone's cranky this morning, huh?"

"Someone kept me up with his singing last night," she says casually, smirking.

"You won't let that go?" he asks, sounding a little tired.

"Never," she grins, on the verge of laughing.

He groans, covering his head in his hands. "And here I thought we could be friends."

"Try a little harder."

"Don't you think you should put a little more effort too?" Sokka suggests, raising an eyebrow. "I'm the one who keeps getting embarrassed."

"Me? I'm giving my everything into this possible friendship," she says sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Really?"

"Yup. One hundred percent."

"Are you always this sarcastic?"

"Are you always this weird?"

He takes offense. "I'm not weird!"

"Sokka, I can hear you making puns. Stuff like 'over my dead _coffee_ ' or how this guy from the Earth Kingdom was _grounded_ by his parents. I mean, who are you even talking to? And don't ask me how I know, I've told you, the walls are thin. _Really_ thin."

"Can't I get any privacy?"

"Maybe you should consider doing things in silence," she says, placing her head on the palm of her hand.

He looks like he's struggling to find something to say. "Maybe you should too."

"You don't hear me singing about coffee at six in the morning, do you?"

Defeated, Sokka sighs. "No. Fine. You win. What else do you want from me anyway? You've got the plug."

She shrugs. "Teasing you is fun. you have like these different shades of blushes."

With a roll of his eyes, he sips his coffee. "Thanks. I really appreciate it. It's not like I get enough of that from my sister."

"You have a sister?" she asks, sounding a little surprised. She figured he was some sort of only child.

He nods. "Yup. Her name's Katara, but you can call her the Most Annoying Person in the world."

"But you still love her, don't you?"

"Of course I do. She's my sister," he replies with a small (and just a little bit adorable) smile.

"Good."

They sit together in silence, Suki tapping her fingers against the wooden table. Her eyes drift to the boy across her, looking a little confused. She wonders why.

"Don't look at me like that!" he exclaims all of the sudden, frowning a little.

"Like what?" she asks, confused.

"Like I'm your world," he replies with a teasing smile.

Suki groans. "I walked right into that, didn't I?"

"Yup," he says with a grin. "One point for Sokka—"

"Two for Suki," she finishes with a satisfied smile.

"Wait, how come you get two points?" he says, eye brows furrowing.

"One from the first time we met, and the other from last night. Seems fair to me," she explains, leaning back and crossing her arms.

"Whatever," he mutters. "I'll get more points than you by Christmas. Just you wait."

"Sure," she says. "How much you wanna bet on it?"

"You're _so_ on," he replies with a smirk. "Twenty dollars seem fair?"

"Hmm," she pauses. "How about twenty dollars and free movies? You buy my ticket to any movie I wanna watch for the whole month."

"How are you so sure I'm going to be the one buying the tickets?"

"Well, it's obvious you're not going to win," she answers, leaning forward.

"And why not?" Sokka asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Just a hunch," she answers with a smile. "I'm the one who's in the lead at the moment."

She glances over to her laptop and sees that the light's turned red to blue, and unplugs it. Suki places it in her bag.

"I'll see you around? Kinda need to if this bet is gonna keep going," he says.

"Obviously," she slings her bag over her shoulder. "And we still need to seal the deal."

"What? Like a handshake?"

"No, like _this_ ," she answers, bends down, and kisses his cheek. She stands up straight, watching the dumb-founded expression his face. "Oh, and Sokka?"

"Yeah?" he says quietly, his cheeks still a deep shade of red.

"I think I like the idea of a possible friendship. It's got potential."

Suki turns around and starts walking to the building where her class is. Her lips tingle a little from the contact they made with Sokka's cheek earlier. There's a warm feeling in her chest as she thinks about it. The way he blushed, his eyes widening—

_No._

She walks forward, furiously avoiding the topic. She couldn't like him. He's her neighbor! You don't like people who make puns at six in the morning, people who try to introduce themselves with the most overused joke in history, people who sing while they do the laundry. You _don't._

So if she didn't like him, what is she feeling? It's like the rush of excitement and heartbeats, it smells like coffee and rain, it looks like a guy with a ponytail and a crooked smile, it feels like a kiss on the cheek, and it sounds like what children back in middle school call a crush.

Nope. But that's not it. It can't be.

She can't like Sokka. He's too… Well, she can't explain exactly what he is, but he's certainly not what she expected to find in college. Okay, so maybe she knew she would run into a couple of cute guys, but Sokka…he was different.

And maybe that's what made her heart beat faster than it should've.


	3. do i know you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka and Suki figure out a plan to keep the loud guy on the floor above them quiet. He won't know what hit him.

**sokka – ll**   
**suki – ll**

Sokka doesn't have a lot of friends so far. 

Sure, there are occasional conversations he's had with classmates for the past two weeks, but they never really make it outside the building. There are the glances he makes when he sees them at the mall or at the park, but that's it. He doesn't really consider them to be friends, not really. They get along, they talk, and they leave. 

Then there's Suki. 

He's not really sure what to make of her, she's his neighbor. She's spoken to him, made fun of him, kissed his cheek (not that it's a big deal or anything), and they say hello every time they pass each other in the hallway. But maybe that's it, he thinks. 

He continues to scribble hastily on his essay paper, trying to make the most of what he could get on the paper before—

"HAHAHAHA!" 

The laughter cuts cleanly through the ceiling wall, interrupting Sokka's train of thought, leaving him a mess of broken words. He clenches his fists, knowing that it's useless to try to argue with the old man who lives above him. But did he really have to be so loud when listening to the radio dramas or watch his football games?

He'd try talking to the old guy about it earlier — with no luck. He really didn't care about others, huh? All Sokka wanted to do was finish the stupid essay and then sleep to his heart's content but no. That man made everything impossible at the given moment. 

He figures he's not going to get any work done at his room, so maybe doing it at the coffee shop would work. Sokka grabs his papers and stands up. He makes sure to lock the door, sighing as he makes a quick glance at the door next to his. 

There's an empty feeling in his chest, but he doesn't know what's missing. 

He leaves without another look at the door, heading down the stairs quickly. Maybe the faster he can get away from the door, the faster the feeling will leave. 

But going faster only brings him to the source of the feeling. And it only leads to Sokka questioning his luck in the middle of the night because he _definitely_ does not lay awake thinking about her. 

His shoulder comes in contact with someone else's, causing him to stumble a little on the steps. His hands catch the railing and he holds himself steady. 

"Hey, watch it," he mutters, not bothering to take a second glance. He takes another step forward before the person replies. 

"Really, Sokka? What happened to the potential friendship?" 

He turns around, confused. Whoever she is, with a green dress and white make-up all over her face, she seems to confuse him with someone else (possibly named Sokka as well, but how common was his name? not very much). 

"Look, I don't know you. Is there a problem?" he says, eyebrows raising. Her blue eyes look a little familiar, but not so much. 

"Yeah, I've got a problem with you! I've seen your type before. Probably sarcastic, think you're hilarious and let me guess, you make puns about everything," she says, placing her hands on her hips. Who does this girl think she is?

He rubs the back of his neck. "Do I know you?"

"You mean you don't remember? Maybe you'll remember this!" she says with a grin. Then she kisses his cheek and Sokka recognizes her immediately. 

He grins. "Suki!"

"Nice to see you, too," she says, amused. 

"What's with the make-up?" he asks, gesturing to his own face. "I never really took you to be one to party in the middle of the day."

"I came from tessenjutsu class. It's required to wear all this," she gestures to the make-up and dress. 

He scratches the back of his neck. "Isn't that like fan combat or something? Don't you think that's a little girly?"

She scoffs. "What's wrong with that? I _am_ a girl. And plus, I could totally kick your butt right now if I wanted to." 

"Okay, okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm sure it's a little cool," he says, raising his hands in defense. 

She rolls her eyes. There's another round of laughter that echoes through the walls and Suki crosses her arms. "Ugh, it's him again."

"You're annoyed too?" Sokka asks. 

"Of course, I can barely do anything without him laughing his ass off every five seconds. I've tried talking to him yesterday, but he just—"

"—wouldn't listen," he finishes, nodding. "Yeah, I had the same experience this morning."

"That guy's even louder than you are," she adds, the ends of her lips tugging upward. "But at least he doesn't sing."

"Hey!" Sokka says, frowning. Another roar of laughter and he clenches his fists. "There's gotta be a way to stop him, I've got homework to do.

"So do I! But it's hopeless, he won't listen," Suki tells him, rubbing her temple. 

"Stupid TV and stupid loud radio," he mutters. "If only there was a way to shut those things down, unless…"

If the man couldn't access either of those things, then he wouldn't be laughing all the time. It could actually be quiet. 

"Sokka…" Suki trails carefully. "You've got this weird smile on your face and it's a little scary, to be honest."

"Suki, I've got it! We just need to take out his electricity, then figure out a why to make sure he knows to keep it down."

"Like a fake warning letter?" she offers, looking a little excited herself. "From the management?"

"Exactly! So are you in?" He feels a little hopeful, but he's not sure if it's because he'll be able to stop the guy from being so loud or because it just might be another excuse to spend more time with Suki. He'll take both. 

Sokka holds his breath as she decides, and a part of him really hopes that she says yes. 

"This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you've ever had," she says slowly, a little hesitant. His shoulders slump. Then she smiles widely. "Of course I'm in."

He doesn't know why he does it, but Sokka wraps his arms around her. When he realizes what he's doing, he quickly lets go. He sees that her cheeks are a deep shade of red. His are too, probably. He only manages a smile. 

"Two points for Sokka."


	4. you're staring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suki smiles and Sokka won't let her hear the end of it.

**sokka – ll**   
**suki – lll**

"Have I entered an alternate dimension or did you really just crack a smile for me?"

Suki's cheeks turn a bright shade of pink as Sokka's words are registered, but she crosses her arms anyway. She can't let him win. 

"Oh, _please_ ," she says, rolling her eyes. "It was a horrible joke. Why on earth would I smile?"

Sokka doesn't stop smiling, much to her embarrassment. She takes a sip from her Coke, hoping it'll cool down her warm cheeks. 

"I can't believe it," he says, waving a triumphant arm in the air. She immediately forces him to put it back down, but his enthusiasm still doesn't fade. "I saw you smile!"

"You've seen me smile tons of times," she tells him. She smiles, showing him her teeth. "There. I smiled."

"Yeah, but this one was _different_ ," he declares, putting his own can down. "It wasn't because you were making fun of me. And this time, Suki, this _time_ , it was because you found one of my jokes funny."

"Your jokes are never funny," she replies without missing a beat. "They're awful."

"You're beginning to sound like my sister," he mumbles. "You'll learn to love them! You will. Just you wait."

She rolls her eyes again. "The chances of me liking one of your jokes is like the chances of me falling for you. And believe me, that's not going to happen anytime soon."

_You're a liar, Suki._

He waves a hand dismissively. "What? My good looks and charm too much for you to handle?"

Suki scoffs. "More like it's pitiful."

"Hey!" he exclaims, frowning. "A girl in one of my classes — I think her name was Ty Lee — called me kinda cute yesterday!"

"Sokka, she thinks everybody's cute," she explains, her lips in a firm line. "It's a good thing she hasn't heard any of your jokes, though."

"Suki, I give the _best_ of all my jokes out to you. You're, like, my joke-tester! To see if they're funny. You should feel honored. And besides, if I'm not the funny and good-looking and great with a boomerang guy, then who am I?"

"A dork, that's what," she mutters. "And your jokes could really use more improvement. If we lived in the past, I can tell you'd make really lame battle cries."

He pouts, crossing his arms. "Yeah, but that doesn't erase the fact that _you_ , Suki I-don't-know-your-last-name of Kyoshi Island, found one of _my_ jokes funny and smiled."

"Shut up, Sokka," she answers, shushing him. "It was still a bad pun, okay?"

"So you admit it was good?"

"It _wasn't_! I smiled because you're trying too hard!" she excuses, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. 

Sokka's still grinning, but all she wants to do is wipe that stupid smile of his face _because he's embarrassing her and maybe she shouldn't want him to smile as much just because she thinks it looks good on him._ She really shouldn't. 

"You're staring," he says, turning a little pink. Why?

She blinks. "What?"

"You were staring. At me," he replies flatly, the color still in his cheeks. 

Her eyes widen and she feels her cheeks turn warm for the second time today. Dammit. "No, I wasn't."

"Sure you were," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "And that's totally fine. I won't be bothered if you fall for me or anything because you're actually really pretty — I've told you that before, haven't I? — and I don't mind. It's totally fine."

Suki has no idea what to say. Besides the fact that he thought she was pretty…he was _okay_ with her liking him? Not that she did. Nope. 

"I mean, I know I'm really good-looking and I've got this charm all the ladies back in my high school used to like and they'd follow me around like puppies," he says and that's when Suki knows he's lying. Is he trying to impress her? Maybe. Does he want to inflate his ego? Definitely. 

Ugh. 

"You're right," she says, trying to hide a laugh as she sees his eyes widen. "I do like you."

"Really?"

(Is it just her or did he sound hopeful?)

"Nope," she grins. "Three points for Suki!"

"Awww, come on!" he complains as she laughs. "I was just — I finally caught up — _ugh_."

Suki laughs again, long and loud. "Deal with it, Sokka."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he says, rolling his eyes. 

(His cheeks are flushed, and Suki kind of likes how cute he is when he's blushing.)

"So I was thinking about the plan, and I figured we could go into more detail tonight." He stutters out the last part, "You—you could come over. I mean, if want to."

She furrows her eyebrows. "Why can't we do it now? In the coffee shop? You're here, I'm here." 

"I have class in ten minutes and you have your fan thing," he replies.

" _Tessenjutsu_ ," she clarifies, crossing her arms. "That's what it's called, you goof."

"Sure, yeah, okay. So are you coming over? There'll be popcorn while we discuss the Greatest Revenge Plan Ever."

She's got nothing to lose. Well, maybe except a bit of homework time. But this is for the greater good. They needed to make sure the old man stayed quiet, so she could do her homework in peace. It's all gonna work out. She knows it. 

"Sure," she tells him. He smiles at her. 

With that, he throws his bag over is shoulder and stands up. 

He waves. "Bye, Suki!"

Suki waves back, "Bye!"

She figures there's nothing else to do now that Sokka's gone, so she heads back to her room. She has to change into her uniform, anyway. But when she makes it there, she sees that there's a girl with a long braid standing in front of her neighbor's door. 

The girl turns to look at her. "Hey, have you seen Sokka? He's my brother and I just want to visit, but he's not answering the door—"

Suki realizes that this is the sister Sokka's mentioned a couple times the past two weeks. "Katara? Is that your name? I'm Suki."

Katara looks a little surprised. "Yeah. How'd you know? Did Sokka tell you?"

She nods. "He just went to class five minutes ago. He was in the coffee shop two floors down."

"Oh," she says, sounding stumped. "I was planning a surprise visit."

"Do you want to come over? My tessenjutsu class starts in an hour, and Sokka might be done with his class by that time, so you could wait outside then."

"Fan combat? That's really cool!"

Suki muses, "Your brother didn't seem to think so at first." She fits the key through the knob and opens it, letting Katara in first. 

"Of course he didn't," Katara says, sitting down on the bed. "But he's been nice to you, right?"

"Does he always make jokes?" she asks, just for confirmation. 

"All the time," she answers with a small laugh. "How has he been as a neighbor?"

"He's been great…a great neighbor," Suki says, "and a pain in the neck."

"Uh huh," Katara nods. "I get what you mean."

She can't imagine having to live with Sokka. And hearing his jokes everyday. Then she gets an idea. 

"You wouldn't mind giving me some embarrassing stories about him, would you? In case of blackmail," Suki asks hesitantly. 

Katara grins. "I would _love_ to. And Suki?"

"Yeah?" she asks, picking out her uniform from the closet. 

"I think you'd be good for my brother," she tells her, pretending to be interested in her nails. 

"We're not—" she tries to say, flustered. Why does this keep happening to her?

"Not together, yeah, I guessed. But just in case, yeah?" Katara says, looking like she's trying to fight off the urge to laugh. 

Suki stares at her in the eyes. "Katara, we're not together, and we never will be."

"Sure, Suki. Sure. But you seem like a good person. And if he gives you any trouble, you can always tell me."

"Thanks," she says warmly. "But I think I can handle him."

She grins. "Besides, I've always wanted a sister, and if you and Sokka ever decided to—"

" _Katara_!"


	5. oh no

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's an idiot around her, that's what he is, tripping over his sentences and stuttering like there's no tomorrow.

**sokka – ll**   
**suki – llll**

There's a knock on his door that interrupts the sentence he's writing for his essay. He's about to complain about it when he realizes who could possibly at the door. Sokka stumbles on the way there, tripping over an old shirt that should've been put away to the laundry a week before. 

Three steps away from the door and his heart has tripled its beating rate for some odd, unknown reason he can't really comprehend. It's just Suki, he tells himself, it's just Suki. 

But that seems to make matters even worse. 

Because it's _Suki_ of Kyoshi, the girl he's known for maybe a month and a half now, the girl who's (quite embarrassingly) his only friend ( _friend_ , not just acquaintance) in college so far, the girl who finds every chance to make fun of him, the girl who has (really) pretty blue eyes and a smile he wishes to see more, the girl he likes—

oh no. 

_Oh no._

It's too late to realize what he's just thought of because he's already pulled the door knob. He takes a deep breath, just to maybe calm himself. 

And there she is. 

"Hey, Suki," he says with a smile, a little tense. "What brings you here?"

"Um, you kind of told me to come here earlier," she says awkwardly, adjusting her bag strap on her shoulder. 

_Idiot_. "Oh, y-yeah, sorry. Kind of forgot," he stutters out, flustered. "Come in."

He watches her look around his room for a bit, realizes he's staring when she looks back at him, and then blushes. "Oh, uh, you can sit down wherever you want, the popcorn's still in the microwave."

Suki sits down on the edge of his bed, looking amused. "You know, I'm actually surprised your place is clean," she comments.

Sokka crosses his arms. "What? I like being neat."

"Yeah, Katara mentioned you were some sort of neat freak."

"You talked to Katara?" he asks, a little surprised. When they were talking earlier, she mentioned something about seeing Suki, since they're neighbors and all, but she never said anything about _talking_ to her. "When?" 

"She dropped by earlier, right? But you left for class already, so I invited her to my room," Suki explains, smirking a little. 

Oh no. "She didn't say anything embarrassing about me, did she?"

The grin on Suki's face tells him everything he needs to know. 

"Four points for Suki," she says with satisfaction.

"Hey, that's not fair! It doesn't count!" he argues, frowning. 

She sticks her tongue out. "You're just mad because I'm going to win."

"You aren't," he hisses. "I _am_."

"You have, like, two points. That's half of mine."

He rolls his eyes, sitting down next to her. "Whatever. Anyway about the plan, I was thinking we could cut his electricity plan, you know, sneak in into the office downstairs and cut the line—"

"Then we make a fake warning letter to make sure he keeps it down," she finishes. "Will it be from the owner of the building?"

"Not necessarily. More like a threat that he'll get kicked out. But yeah, owner works, too."

"Okay," she says, furrowing her eyebrows, like she's imagining the plan. "Okay. When do we do it?"

"Friday?" he suggests. "Are you okay with that?"

She nods. "Yeah. Friday's good."

_Wow, she looks really cute right now, don't say something stupid, no, don't you dare—_

"Wanna hear a joke?"

_Dammit, Sokka! Do you want her to leave?_

"Is this is your way of trying to win the bet? It won't work," Suki says, scrunching up her nose. 

He sighs. "Just hear me out, okay?"

"Fine," she says. 

Sokka inhales. "Did it hurt?"

"Please, not this one again."

"Answer the question," he says, ignoring what she just said. 

She bites her lip. "Did what hurt?"

"Did it hurt when you smiled at me?" he asks, but he kind of already knows what she's going to say. 

"I did not!"

He rubs his arm. "Come on, Suki. Just smile. Just once."

"I can't. You'll earn a point and I won't let that happen," she tells him, her face hardening. 

"I promise, it won't count," he tells her. He doesn't really know why he asked, but maybe — _maybe_ — he can get something out of it.

"Why do you want it so badly?" she asks. 

"I just…" he shakes his head. "Fine, you don't have to—"

"—okay," she says, in the middle of his sentence. 

"Oh," he says. "Oh. Okay."

"But on one condition," she pauses, "you give me all the popcorn. All of it."

"Okay, yeah," he says. 

"Okay," she says. Then she smiles at him and his chest feels like exploding. 

He's not fully recovered from it when he says, "It wasn't so hard. And did it hurt?"

She shakes her head in amusement. "You're a dork."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Thanks, Suki."

"Whatever, Sokka."

There's the faint beep of the microwave and Sokka stands up to grab the bag. Thank whoever made popcorn in bags. 

"Do you want to watch a movie?" he asks, opening the bag of popcorn and handing it to her. 

"Sure," she says, moving to the foot of the bed on the floor and folding her legs. 

Sokka goes through his mini-collection of movies. "Hey, you're okay with Star Wars, right?"

"Star Wars? You mean that space movie? I never got around to watching it," she tells him. 

He gasps. "Suki! How can you not have watched it? Any of them? I was going to play the latest one, but this calls for drastic measures! _Drastic measures_! I'm playing the very first one!"

"Uh…okay?"

He starts up the movie and they sit together at the foot of the bed. 

"You're going to love this!" Sokka tells her, anticipating the first scene. "It might be a little confusing — unless you watch all the movies and understand everything that's going on all the time — but you have me, so you're pretty much good to go. Don't be afraid to ask questions, okay? Besides, you're going to be too invested to have time to ask questions, so all questions after the movie then? And don't even get me started on the characters—"

"Sokka, it's starting," she cuts him off. She's smiling a little. 

Sokka blushes, realizing he'd been talking too much and too fast. "Sorry for rambling," he mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm just really, _really_ excited. I want you to like it, you know?"

"I'm sure I will," she reassures him with a warm smile. "And it was kind of cute anyway, your rambling."

He doesn't say anything after that. His heart does all the talking for him. 

And somewhere along the line, in between, Sokka's squealing and rush of excitement, his hand finds the space where hers lies and rests a centimeter away. For a second they brush, and his cheeks turn red. It's a good thing she's too focused on the movie. 

(He really isn't after that.)


	6. still pretty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After conversations about Star Wars and Halloween, Suki doesn't have anything left to lose.

**sokka – lll**

**suki – llll**

 

Star Wars is a lot longer than she thought it would be. She isn't sure what she was expecting, to be honest. 

They're in the middle of _The Force Awakens_ — after a long week of coming over to his place when classes were over, they'd finally made it to the latest movie. She's not sure she wants the marathons to end, though. 

"Sokka, are you _crying_?" Suki asks, trying to suppress a smile as she heard him sniffle. 

His ears turn red immediately, and he wipes his nose with his arm. Sokka shakes his head. "Me? No. Of course not. Why would I? It's just a movie. It's not like Han Solo was one of my favorite characters or anything. I'm totally fine."

She rolls her eyes. "Sure." Suki scoots over a little and bumps his shoulder with her own. "It's okay to cry, you know. Doesn't make you less of a man. It's your favorite movie, after all."

Sokka smiles a little, but hides it away, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm good."

Well, she tried. 

Suki returns her attention back to the screen, her eyes glued to the action taking place. A small smile rests on her lips as she watches the rest of it all. 

A little later, after they'd finished the movie — leaving a teary-eyed Sokka in its wake, a laughing Suki, and another pack of popcorn — Suki finds herself watching the stars. 

Well, not the real stars. Just the glow-in-the-dark ones. 

"They're pretty," she murmurs quietly. They lie on the bed together, limbs sprawled to the sides as they stare up ahead. Suki can hear Sokka's sigh. "Really pretty."

"You know who else is pretty?" 

"Sokka, don't you _dare_ —"

" _You_."

"—complete that sentence." Suki rolls her eyes. "And you did, anyway."

Sokka turns his head sideways, grinning at her. "Three points for me!"

"It doesn't count! I saw it coming!" she exclaims. 

"Yeah," he says, "but you still blushed. And you didn't stop me, either."

She grits her teeth in irritation. "Fine. You get a point."

He nudges her shoulder. Pouting, he says, "Hey, come on, Suki, don't be mad. I said you were pretty!"

_Yeah, for the sake of earning a stupid point._

"Am I supposed to say thank you?"

He shrugs. "If you want to."

"Anyway, I'm still ahead by one point," she says. 

"One," he says. "It's just one point."

"Still counts." She tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I meant it, you know. I do like the stars."

"And I really do think you're pretty," Sokka tells her, sounding sincere. "Still pretty. As always."

She blushes, a faint red brush appearing on her cheeks. "Thank you."

"I think I get my point honestly now," he says with a smile. "Is that okay with you?"

She nods. "Yeah. Okay."

They lay in silence for a moment. It's enough for Suki, for now. Crushes may be stupid, but they're  all she has. All she ever will. Falling for the boy next to her will be like falling on a cliff with nothing to catch her. It's like that cheesy joke he'd told her the first time they met — and yeah, it _will_ hurt. 

And that's why she can't afford it. 

(He did mention once that he was okay with her liking him, right? Did that mean that he liked her back? No. It couldn't be. He was just joking. Just trying to inflate his ego. That's all it is; that's all it will ever be.)

(They're just friends, anyway. _Just friends_. Maybe if things were different, she'd tell him. But things stay exactly the same way, so she can't. That's okay — for now, at least.)

"You didn't like Star Wars," he says — well, it sounds more like a statement — with a frown. 

She raises an eyebrow. "How would you know?"

"If you did, you'd be talking non-stop about it. But you're not. So. You didn't like it."

She adjusts her body and stares at him. "Sokka, I _did_ like it. Why do you think I kept coming over? I would've stopped from the beginning if I hadn't."

He blinks. "Good point."

"And besides, who says I need to talk about it to show I like something?" _I like you but I don't talk about you to others_ goes unsaid. 

"Okay," he says. 

"Okay."

"…so you liked it?" he asks. 

"Absolutely." She smiles. 

"I'm glad you did," he tells her, cheeks flushed. "I'm really, really glad you did."

"Me, too."

It's a little later when they start talking again, and it starts with a question she's not sure she wanted to hear. 

"So who are you dressing up as for Halloween?"

"Uh, no one?" she says, sitting up. Fumbling with her fingers, she adds, "I've never dressed up as anyone—"

"WHAT?" Sokka asks abruptly and loudly. "You have got to be kidding me, Suki. Have you ever gone trick-or-treating?"

She rolls her eyes. "You didn't let me finish. I said I never dressed up as anyone, not that I never went trick-or-treating. I've dressed up as a fairy when I was nine, but that's not a person — it's just a _type_ of person. Well, a magical and quite unrealistic type."

"Smart ass," he mumbles under his breath. She laughs. "Okay, okay, fine, what are you doing this Halloween?"

"Don't you think we're too…old to go trick-or-treating?" she asks, lips pursed. "We're kind of in college, you know."

He frowns. "You're never to old to trick-or-treating, Suki!" Sokka's eyes brighten at the thought of something. "And besides, don't you think it's the perfect time to strike and take out the old dude's electricity? Everyone will be outside, celebrating Halloween like the normal people they are — not saying you're different or anything, since you _obviously_ plan to do something for Halloween, _right_?"

 "Yes, Sokka, I do plan to do something," she says. "And that is taking out the electricity of a man that is too loud for his own good."

"Then it's settled then," he says. "That's when we'll attack."

"You make this sound like it's a war."

"Isn't it?"

"No, Sokka, it isn't."

"Are you sure?" he asks. "You're kind of the fan warrior over here. We've got the upper hand."

"It's not a war." She gives him a pointed look. 

"Hey, don't look at me like that. All's fair in love and war."

"It's not a war," she repeats. 

"Sure feels like it," he says, grinning. "Suki of Kyoshi, are you ready to fight?"

Suki rolls her eyes, figuring that she might as well go along with it. "You're asking _me_? A girl who's trained for five years in fan combat and has mastered the skills of stealth and agility? Really? Heck yeah I am!"

That manages a smile out of Sokka. He throws an arm around her, grinning widely. 

"As much as we're hyping this all, I have another important question," he says, pausing for dramatic effect. 

"Bring it," she counters. 

He takes a deep breath. "When it's over, do you want to go trick-or-treating with me?"

Suki rolls her eyes, smiling. "Why not?"

She has nothing to lose. Maybe her heart along the way, but hey, he'd already stolen it the moment he smiled. 


	7. like always

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka hadn't known how much he'd missed the rain. That is, until Suki showed him.

**sokka – lll**

**suki – llll**

It takes him three days to muster enough courage to suggest that Suki and he go as zombie apocalypse survivors for Halloween. 

(Okay, maybe he hasn't fully convinced her yet, but he's getting there. It was even worse when he had proposed the idea to her — all she did was laugh at him!)

"Come on, Suki," he says, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. The coffee shop had the best ones, and he's glad that he lives near it. "It'll be fun."

"You said that when I brought you to my tessenjutsu class and you ended up on the floor in the span of a minute," she says, raising an eyebrow. Before he can object and say something about she caught him off guard (but she always did, so really, what was the point?), Suki adds, "And besides, _zombies_?"

Sokka crosses his arms. "You know, like Walking Dead? Please tell me you've heard of it."

"Don't worry, I have," she says. "Just because I didn't watch Star Wars doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious to everything."

He throws his arms forward. "There! You get my point! We'd be super badass, you and me! We could even carry fake guns — wait, even better, you could carry your fan and I could carry my boomerang! Or my sword, but it's pretty dangerous and there'll be kids around."

"Wait, you have a sword?" she asks. "Why?"

"That's…a long story," Sokka says, rubbing the back of his neck. "Let's just say that it was an accident. A messed up accident."

"…okay?" she says, a small smile breaking out on her face. "I'm not going to question it."

"So?" he asks. "Are you okay with it or not?"

She shrugs. "Fine, okay, you win. But what are we going to wear? You know, besides holding weapons?"

"I was thinking we'd just wear normal clothes and rip the edges, oh, and put dirt on it, too. For effect," he tells her. "It'd be awesome."

"I think your imagination is a little different from mine," she says. Sokka's shoulders slump, was his idea really that bad? "But," she adds, which raises his hopes a little too much, "I guess it's pretty cool. I'll do it. With you, I mean."

His heart pumps through his chest a little faster, but it's not like he knows why. It's not because of Suki. Definitely not. 

(Oh, who is he kidding? _Of course_ it's because of her. There's no one else who makes him feel this way — and he's stupid enough to believe that she'd like him back.)

"Sokka?" Suki calls, waving a hand in front of him. "Uh, are you okay? You're kind of staring."

He blushes. "Sorry," he mutters. "Just thinking."

The thunder rumbles outside, signaling the start of rain. Lighting flashes through the sky, like always. It fascinates him sometimes. 

"Hey," Suki says, "do you want to go outside and feel the rain?" Her face is serious, like she doesn't realize the dangers of going outside during a thunderstorm. 

Sokka stares at her. "We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you want to go outside and feel the rain? Are you serious?"

Suki only nods. "If I'm going to dress up as a zombie apocalypse survivor, then you're going to come with me outside. Plus, it's been a while since I walked in the rain."

"Suki, it's a _thunderstorm_! We could get hit by lightning or something! We could catch a cold! Then we'll miss our classes and then we'll fail and—"

"Sokka, _relax_! We'll be fine, and we won't be outside for long. Just a few minutes, okay?" 

If it hadn't been for the look she was giving, he would've said no. But then again, she's Suki and he's kind of really in love with her, so it's not like he has a choice. 

"We're never doing this again, okay? Just once," he tells her. "And if I get sick, it's your fault."

Suki rolls her eyes. "If you do, I'll take it up on myself to personally take care of you," she says. "So don't worry. You're the only one I trust to do this."

She stands up to start walking and grabs his hand, but Sokka doesn't move an inch. 

He simply looks at her. "You trust me," he states. 

Suki nods slowly. "Yes. I trust you. Now, come on, let's go before the rain stops." 

She drags him outside, their fingers intertwined (oh god, she's holding his hand, this is not a drill, _she's holding his hand_ ). Sokka has to try to keep his breathing steady and he doesn't have time to focus on the people staring at him because Suki is _still_ holding his hand. 

The rain hits his head, fast and hard. Suki's beaming with joy in front of him, and all he can do is stare at everything with wonder. Wow. He'd almost forgotten what being in the rain without a care felt like. 

"I can't believe you talked me into this!" he exclaims over the roar of the wind. Suki laughs in return, letting go of his hand. It feels like something is missing for a second. 

He watches as Suki walks around in the rain, raising her hand like she's greeting an old friend. Her hair sticks to her face like glue, but she doesn't seem bothered at all. She just keeps grinning. And she looks beautiful. 

_I think I'm in love with you and I'm terrified._

"See? I told you it would be fun!" she says, flashing him a smile. Her cheeks are a little red, but he isn't sure if it's because of the rain. "Where do you want to go?"

He raises an eyebrow. "We're just going to walk in the rain? Just like that?" 

"Yeah," she says. "Just like that. Do you think the people in the coffee shop would let us, two soaking wet college students, back in? No, they won't."

"How about the library? We could dry off when we pass by the laundry shop, since they have towels," he offers. 

She grabs his hand once more, and grins. "Sounds like a plan."

And there goes his heart. 

Like always.


	8. i trust you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She trusts him and he trusts her and that's all that matters.

**sokka – lll**

**suki – lllll**

They make it to the library eventually, after irritating the Laundry Lady because they needed to borrow towels to dry off, but Suki isn't sure she wants the rain to stop. Or the day. 

(She doesn't want to stop spending time with Sokka either. It's fun to be around him, no matter how dorky and cheesy he can be…it's a little endearing, to be honest.) 

All her life, Suki has been taught to enjoy the small things. Savor the taste of the last chocolate bar you've eaten. Smell the freshly-cut grass and the fruits being harvested. Watch the stars light up in someone else's eyes. Listen to the birds chirping when you wake up. Feel the rain as it falls on your head. Sing. Dance. Cry. Laugh. Be silly. Fall in love. Fall out of it. Remember the small things. Remember what they feel like. 

So that's what she does right now. 

(Who cares if she's staring at him while he goes on and on about his sister and all their friends? His smile captivates her and she can't seem to look away. Just treasure it, Suki. Remember the way he looks at you. The small things. The little wonders. Remember them.) 

"—and there was this one time Aang and I snuck into a party as bus boys because Toph didn't think we could pass as men of a higher status. Which is totally dumb. Because we — well, I think I'm speaking for myself, because have you _met_ Aang? Oh, never mind, I forgot you haven't — I could've totally gotten in there, you know?" he says quickly, glancing at her for reassurance. 

"If you say so," she replies, shrugging. "This Toph kid has her own opinions and you have yours." 

Sokka frowns. "Yeah, but what do _you_ think?" 

She raises an eyebrow, flipping the page of her book. "Why would it matter what I think?" she asks. "Also, keep your voice down. The librarian keeps glaring at you." 

"Because," he says after a pause. "Just because." 

"Because what?" she says. It's not that she doesn't have a definitive answer — which is a yes, but only if he tried his best — but her curiosity tends to get the better of her when she's in situations like these. Situations that are Sokka-involved. 

"Because you're Suki!" he exclaims. The librarian shushes him and red floods his cheeks. He slouches. "And I…I just want to know, okay? I don't like saying this but… Look, I never went to prom and I want to know if you think I was capable of looking presentable." 

"O-of course," she stammers, her cheeks flushing. And no, she does not, in fact, at that very moment, imagine Sokka in a tux looking very much _presentable_.) After she sees the satisfied look on his face, she asks, "How come you didn't go to prom?" 

It's his turn to blush. With a hard look he says (quite unconvincingly), "I-I just didn't want to." 

She rolls her eyes. "Do you really expect me to believe that?" 

"Believe what?" he asks. "That was the truth!" 

The librarian shushes him again and Suki smirks. 

"You can try to deny it all you want, Boomerang Boy, but I'm pretty sure you're not telling the truth," she tells him with a satisfied smile when his cheeks turn pink. 

He puts his hands up. "Alright, alright." Sokka sighs. "Okay, fine, you got me." 

"And?" she asks. 

He sighs again, eyes averted away from her. "I didn't have a date," he mutters, his head lowered. 

"What was that? I couldn't hear," she lies, hiding a grin. 

"I didn't have a date," he says louder. "I didn't have a date, okay? You happy now?" 

"This means five points for me!" She smiles, but it fades quickly when she sees the dejected look on his face. "Also, why didn't you have a date? It's kind of hard to believe, actually." 

_I would've went with you. I would've said yes._

Sokka just shrugs. "Guess the ladies didn't like me as much as I thought, huh?" His words sound a little broken, and she wonders if there's more to it. There obviously is, but she doesn't press. She lets go. 

She'd rather not remember the sad look on his face. 

"So, hey, what's the book you're reading about?" Suki asks instead. Sokka looks grateful for a change of topic. She smiles. 

She remembers the look on his face as he tells her all about the book. It fills her heart with warmth. 

* * *

Two hours later, they're on their way back to the building to rest for the day. The sun is about to set above them, illuminating their path. 

Suki tries to keep a straight face when Sokka's hand brushes hers for what must be the ninth time so far (not that she's counting), but it proves useless. She takes a quick glance at him, and there's a small red blush spreading on his cheeks. 

She bites her lip, figuring that this has to be one of those small things she needs to remember. Suki grabs his hand and intertwines it with her own, avoiding the look of surprise he gives her. 

It surprises her when his fingers curl around her own, and she lets out a breath now that she knows he's okay with it. With her holding his hand. 

(Okay, so maybe she held his hand earlier while they were out in the rain, but that was a heat of the moment kind of thing. Plus, he didn't look mad about it.) 

"So," he says. 

"So," she repeats. 

"You're an awful conversation starter," he tells her, shaking his head. "You can't just copy what I said." 

She scoffs. "It's not like you're any better." 

"Oh, please." He rolls his eyes. "I have the best ice breakers in the world." 

She raises her eyebrows. "Don't you mean the worst?" 

"Okay, _rude_ ," he says. "You hurt me, Suki. You've wounded me. My poor, poor heart. How will it ever heal?" 

"Aww, does it want a kiss to get better?" she teases. It was obviously meant as a joke, but her eyes widen when she sees the blush on his cheeks. "I was kidding!" 

Suki covers her eyes with her free hand, groaning in frustration. "This is so embarrassing," she says. "I can't believe you—" 

It's his laughter that interrupts her. Annoyed, she looks at him, his cheeks puffed from laughing. Unfortunately for her, it becomes contagious and soon enough, Suki catches herself giggling along with him. 

"So much for a bad conversation starter, huh?" she says with a smirk. 

He says, "Definitely could be better." 

"You're right," Suki agrees. "I guess we both need to work on talking." 

Sokka nods, but doesn't look back at her. He simply stares off into the distance, like he's remembering something. The sun has almost set, and they're almost near the building. 

"Hey, Suki?" he says after a while. 

"Yeah?" 

"Her name was Yue," he says quietly. "My old girlfriend. She was supposed to be my date to the prom." 

"Oh," she says. Suki hesitates before asking, "What happened?" 

"She…" his voice cracks, "she never told me she was sick." 

They stop walking, and Suki stares at him, his shoulders shaking. He's on the verge of crying. 

(She'll remember this too.) 

"The doctors called it cancer, but her parents told me it was the moon spirit," he says. "The moon spirit came to them because she was sick when she was born, but I guess the debt was finally repaid when Yue turned eighteen. The day before prom." 

"Sokka, I'm so sorry," she says. In one swift movement, she moves forward and wraps her arms around his. He's crying and she knows it. "I'm sorry." 

In front of her, Suki will remember the cracks in his voice and the tears that stain his cheeks. She will remember the boy who wore his armor of jokes and strength, only to reveal the glass bones and the paper skin inside. 

(But it's not the only thing she will remember. She will remember his smile and his jokes and his determination to see her smile. She will remember the way he walks and the way he laughs and the way he dances under the rain. Those are the things easier to forget, but they're the things she needs to remember the most.) 

"There's nothing you could've done," she whispers. "You didn't know." 

Sokka cries even harder, but she tells him it's okay. She's here for him. 

"Thanks, Suki," he says, wiping his eyes. "I must seem like a big baby to you right now." 

"Hey, I'm glad you told me," she says as they walk, hands linked again. 

"You're the only one I trust to tell it to," Sokka says with a smile. 

(Someone please help her heart.) 

"You trust me," she says, blinking. 

"See? Now you know how I felt," he tells her. "Makes your heart beat fast, doesn't it?" 

(Hold up — did he know she liked him? Nope. He can't. No way.) 

"It feels good to have a friend," he continues (she lets out a breath at the mention of _friends_ ), "one who trusts you to dance in the rain—" 

"And one who tells you about why she joined tessenjutsu classes instead of learning how to sew like all the other girls," she finishes. 

Sokka stares at her. "You're…but why?" 

Suki shrugs. "I trust you," she says simply. "Now shut up, it's my turn to tell a story." 

"Are you always going to be like this?" he asks, with a tiny smile. 

"Only if you want me to," she says. 

He nods. 

(And maybe — maybe she doesn't have to remember all the small things about him. Because he's always going to be with her and she's always going to be with him.)


	9. together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka's heart needs a break from all the fast beating and adrenaline, honestly.

**sokka – llll**

**suki – lllll**

It's the night of Halloween and Sokka has never felt more _alive._

His heart beats faster than it's ever done before. He feels like he finally understands what rib cages are for. 

He and Suki creep down the stairs. Dressed in black from head to toe, there really isn't that much of a chance of them getting caught. But they still need to be careful. 

The hallways are empty now that everyone's either out celebrating or stuck inside studying. Right now, they're the only exceptions. 

The office is located on the first floor, at the corner. After a week of watching the owner of the building enter and exit the building and figuring out his schedule, Sokka's pretty sure that he won't be here tonight. Plus, it's kind of a holiday. 

(He's also checked the security cameras. There are none looking over the office or the hallway that they're in, so really, they're good to go.) 

The pair round the corner; the door of the office just a few feet away. His fingers drum the wall instinctively, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

"Here's the plan," he whispers, turning around to face Suki. "We go into the office and then we find the electricity switches. We shut the guy's room's electricity down, sneak back out, fake an official letter, leave it at the guy's door, then go trick-or-treating. Sound good?" 

Suki nods. "Do you know how to pick a lock?" 

"What?" 

"Do you know how to pick a lock?" 

"I—why would we need to pick a lock?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. 

She rolls her eyes. "To get into the office, you goof. How else were you expecting to get in? Kick it open?" 

He flushes. "Yes?" 

"That would create too much sound, and then we'll get caught. That's zero progress," she says, shaking her head. "So? Do you know how to pick a lock?" 

"Uh, _that_ , Suki, is an _excellent_ question. You see—" 

Before he can get another word out, Suki shushes him. _Rude_ , he thinks. 

"Someone's coming!" she says quickly. The sound of footsteps approach, gradually getting louder. Sokka holds his breath. They press themselves into the wall, hoping they won't be seen. 

There's whistling, but whoever it is, they walk away after seeing no one and hearing complete silence. Sokka checks the hallway. They're gone. They're safe. 

"I'll pick the lock with my pin and you stand guard, okay?" she says and he nods. In one swift movement, she's standing in front of the door knob and picking at it ferociously. 

"Done," she says after a moment. Suki twists the knob and the door swings open. Placing her hands on her hips, a small smile plays on her lips. "Oh, close your mouth, Sokka, you'll catch flies." 

(Suddenly, Sokka has this really, really weird feeling in his stomach. It summersaults and backflips and turns over and over. His heart remains stuck in his throat, unable to speak. Watching her stand there — wow, how did he get so damn _lucky_? Of course, she isn't his girlfriend or anything — though he'd like that very much — but he's lucky enough to be her friend. Best friend, maybe.) 

"How—where did you learn to do that?" 

"Not important," she replies, dismissing him with a wave of a hand. "Now, come on. Let's get this over with." 

"You're just excited to go trick-or-treating with me," he teases. He knows she'll just roll her eyes like she always does, but hey, it's worth a try. 

But holy shit — it's not like he expected it to work. It totally does though, because the darkness isn't enough to cover the blush spreading on her cheeks. Sokka has to stop himself from grinning too much. 

"So you are," he says as he walks into the unlit room, his eyes scanning for the switches. "Excited to go with me, I mean. I am, too, you know. It's been a while." 

"I guess," she answers quietly. "Don't make a big deal about it." 

"Of course," he says, grinning. "I get a point, though, right?" 

"Yes," she says. "You do. Now, I'll check this side of the room and you can check there." 

He nods and they set off to work. On his side, papers are scrambled everywhere, pens are clattered all over the floor, and there's old candy wrappers on the desk. No sign of the switches. There is, though, a ring of keys. 

"I found a bunch of keys," he informs her. "Maybe the switches are locked." 

"There's a case on the wall," she tells him after a while. "I think the switches are in there. Try the keys." 

He does as he's told, trying each key. Suki holds up her flashlight for him to see what he's doing. Frustratingly, it's the last key that works. 

"Gotcha!" he exclaims when the lock makes a satisfying click. The case opens to reveal the switches that power the building. "Room 31, right?" 

"Uh huh," she says. "I can't wait to see his reaction." 

"Would you like to do the honors, my lady?" Sokka asks, grinning. "You helped with the plan, too." 

Suki smiles softly. Then she takes his hand. 

"I don't mean to sound cheesy or, you know, terribly cliché, God forbid that, but I've already danced in the rain, made a bet, and had several coffee shop encounters with you, so why not, right?" Suki says (looking absolutely adorable, by the way). "Let's just turn it off together, yeah?" 

" _Together_." Sokka nods, his cheeks burning. His finger takes up a portion of the switch, and hers the remaining half. They pull it down in one quick motion. 

"Now let's get out of here," she tells him. 

"Just a sec," he says, grabbing the signature stamp from the desk. Sokka shows it to her. "It'll make the letter more official-looking." 

"Okay," she says. Suki takes a quick glance outside the door. "Let's go." 

"Suki, wait." He takes her hand, stopping her from leaving. Sokka smiles, "Thanks. For coming with me. Agreeing to this insane plan, even back then. Thank you." 

_It gave me an excuse to hang out with you._

"Any time, you dork. Besides, we're doing the entire building a favor. And…it's been fun." 

They sneak back to their respective floor, fingers intertwined. 

(His heart needs to take a break. It deserves it.) 

Suki turns to look at him. "I'll write the letter, leave it at the guy's door, then we'll go trick-or-treating. Just give me an hour." 

He pouts. "Why can't I write the letter?" 

She raises her eyebrow. "Really? You think _you_ can write a fake official letter?" 

"Fine," he says. "One hour, okay?" 

She nods. "One hour." Suki turns to her door, twisting the knob. "Oh, and Sokka?" 

"Yeah?" 

"I can't believe you talked me into this." 

Sokka only smiles. "You're going to love it. I promise." 

She rolls her eyes and disappears into her room, leaving him to wonder one thing— 

how hard would it get her to fall for him?


	10. happy halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, Suki knows where she's going spend her Christmas break. But hey, she's not complaining.

**sokka – llll**

**suki – lllll l**

Suki actually feels like a certified zombie killer. That is, until Sokka opens his mouth. 

" _Wow_. You look amazing." 

Well, that's unexpected. She finds herself wondering if she'd already failed the first part of celebrating Halloween because you're supposed to look _scary_ , not nice. 

(But hey, the ten minutes of staring at herself in the mirror seemed to pay off well, now that he's staring at her with those really, really blue eyes of his and he's smiling like an absolute dork and she's blushing so badly oh dear she can't believe he's doing this to her—) 

"Thank you? I-I guess," she stammers out. Looking down at her clothes, she adds, "Do you think I look scary enough?" 

"If I didn't know you, I wouldn't want to get in your way," Sokka tells her with a supportive smile. "Heck, I _do_ know you and I'm still kind of terrified." 

"Good." Suki crosses her arms. "Let's get going. I want candy." 

"You have your fan?" he asks as they walk down the stairs. 

"Yup," she replies. From her belt, she unhooks her fan, showing it to him. "Can I see your boomerang?" 

It's attached to his back, she soon realizes, as he reaches for it, his arm extended. 

"I guess it's time you guys met," he mumbles out. Sokka hands the boomerang to her. "Suki, meet boomerang, boomerang meet Suki." 

The boomerang is light blue, made out of sharp metal. It's light in her hands, and she practices a few swings, but never actually letting go. 

She asks him about how he got it, and Sokka blushes lightly. 

"My dad gave it to me. For my birthday. He told me I would make a great warrior, and to join the army. And I wanted that, too. Y'know?" 

Suki nods. "But you're not. Joining the army, I mean. You wouldn't be here right now if you were." 

_I know it's selfish, but you wouldn't be with me_ , she mentally adds. _I would have never met you._

"I guess things change, huh?" Sokka says weakly. "Now that the war with the Fire Nation is over, there isn't that much to fight for anymore. I can't be in the army if there isn't one." 

"Oh, Sokka," she starts saying, but really, she has no idea what else she can do to make him happy again. 

He looks at her and flashes a smile. "But one good thing came out of it, though." 

"What? You got to go to college?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. She holds up a hand. "No, wait. I figured it out; I know what you're going to say, so don't bother." 

"Afraid I'll get a point?" 

"Nope. Just don't say it. There's no point." 

_For the sake of my own heart, please don't._

"Sure, there is! It'll make you blush again, and it's _adorable_ when you do." 

Suki looks away, afraid he'll see the blush rapidly spreading on her cheeks. "Oh, look, we're here. Come on, all the kids are beating us! They're getting all the candy." 

"I never knew you were competitive," he mutters. 

"Shut up, Sokka, and grab your pumpkin basket, we need to fill it with candy," she instructs him. 

Then he grabs her hand and takes off running into the night. "Let's go get some candy!" 

Suki beams. 

* * *

"That has to be the least terrifying thing I've ever experienced," Sokka announces. "And they call _that_ a haunted house? I could totally make a better one." 

"Sure," Suki replies, rolling her eyes. "You weren't scared at all, holding my hand all the way through and jumping at the smallest things. Never mind that you screamed at least fifty times, right?" 

His face turns pink. "Fine, you got me," he mumbles. "I was scared, okay? Never been more scared in my entire life. You can get that stupid point if you want, since you didn't seem to be scared at all, which is impossible, by the way." 

She nods, smirking. "It _was_ pretty scary. Especially those scare jumps and do you remember that doctor guy and the butcher? And when they started to corner us…" 

"That was fun," he mutters. "We're never doing that again. Ever." 

Suki laughs, eyeing their surroundings to count how many houses they haven't been to yet. Only one, so far. And they're giving out cotton candy. 

"Hey, that house over there is giving out cotton candy! They have the machine and everything! Let's go get before they run out," Suki tells him, tugging him along. "Cotton candy, Sokka!" 

They fall in line, and it seems like it's going to take a while before they can get their turn. 

"That house over there is giving out chips!" he says. "We need to go there next." 

"Sokka, we've already been there. We can't go back, that's embarrassing!" 

"But they weren't giving out chips earlier when we came, Suki, and I really, really want chips," he points out, pouting. 

She rolls her eyes. "I've got the same ones back at my room. I can give them to you. I don't really like that brand, anyway." 

Sokka gives her a shocked look. "You _offend_ me, Suki of Kyoshi. You offend me greatly." 

"You're overreacting," she smells him before turning her attention to the woman giving out the cotton candy. "Trick-or-treat?" 

"Aren't you a little too old?" she asks, while eyeing both her and Sokka suspiciously. 

"You can never be," she answers, gritting her teeth. 

The lady hands her the cotton candy. "Would your boyfriend like one too?" 

"He's not my—" 

"Yes, please," Sokka cuts her off, taking the cotton candy from her hand. "Thank you." 

While she's blushing furiously, they walk away from the house quickly. 

"Why did you do that?" she asks. "You're not my boyfriend." 

He mumbles something under his breath, but she doesn't hear. 

"What?" she says, raising an eyebrow. 

"Nothing." 

"Sokka—" 

"It was nothing, Suki. Promise," he tells her, his voice soft. "It was nothing." 

"Then why did you let her think that we were—" 

"A couple?" he finishes, staring at her blankly. He shrugs. "What's wrong with it? It doesn't really matter and I just really wanted to get out of that woman's stare, okay?" 

"Okay," she says. Then she takes a deep breath. "I'm not mad, you know. That you said that. Not really." 

Sokka stops walking and just stares. At _her_. "What did you say?" 

"I'm not mad." 

"So you're…okay?" Sokka's voice softens. "Wi-with us?" 

Her face turns red. "I-I guess." 

Did that mean that he… _liked_ her? 

His face is tomato red, and his blue eyes stare at her intently. She doesn't know what else to say. 

"Sorry," he mumbles. "Want some cotton candy?" 

"What flavor is yours?" she asks, taking a piece. 

"Not sure," Sokka says. "I really can't tell." 

"Tastes the same as mine," Suki tells him. "All cotton candy does, well, usually they do." 

Sokka nods. "I think I'm done for the day. Wanna head back home?" 

"Sure." 

The two walk in silence. It's not a very long walk, and the children running around in all sorts of costumes is enough to entertain her. 

"Are you going back to Kyoshi for Christmas break?" he says when they reach the building. 

She looks up at him for the first time in ten minutes. "No," she answers, shaking her head. "Not much waiting for me back at home, anyway. How about you?" 

Suki remembers telling him the story of how she ended up taking tessenjutsu classes and figured he'd understand what she meant. 

"Yeah, actually," he replies. "Katara's been nagging about it ever since the school year started." 

Her shoulders slump a bit because she'd been hoping to have some company over the break, but did she really expect him to choose his family and home over her? No, she couldn't ask that from him. 

They make it to their floor and he looks at her hesitantly. 

"Hey, Suki," he says before she can open the door to her room. 

"Yeah?" 

He fumbles with his fingers. "Since you're not, you know, going back to Kyoshi, I was wondering if you'd want to," he takes a deep breath, "come with me back home during the break?" 

He looks uncomfortable. "Katara's been asking for you, too. And you already know her, so it won't be that awkward, you know? Plus, you'd meet Aang and Toph! Zuko's a little antisocial, but you'll get used to him. So what do you say?" 

A part of her feels really touched that he would offer something like that, so she smiles. 

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asks, biting her lip. "I'll need to go Christmas shopping, too, for all your friends, especially if they're gonna let me stay." 

"Of course it's okay!" he tells her excitedly. "So you're really coming home with me?" 

She nods slowly. "Why not?" 

In his excitement, he hugs her. 

"Oh, thank you!" Sokka exclaims. 

"Hey, I should be the one thanking you," Suki says. "Thanks for letting me come, Sokka. I really appreciate it." 

"I didn't want you to spend Christmas alone," Sokka says. "Anyway, I should go to bed. I've got a lot of homework to catch up on tomorrow. Happy Halloween!" 

She laughs as he disappears through the door. "Happy Halloween," she murmurs. 

It's funny, though, how close they were already. They seem years away from the day they met. And then there's the day at the coffee shop, too. 

It seems like anywhere she went, he would end up being there, too. 

And she didn't feel like complaining.


	11. we'll see

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka gets a call from Katara.

**sokka – llll**

**suki – lllll ll**

Weeks pass by easily, but to Sokka, the days drag on and on until finally, it starts to snow. Christmas break is right around the corner, and he can't wait to go back home. 

He doesn't talk to Suki that much, being caught up with homework and deadlines to meet. They meet for lunch when they can, but most of the time, they do their homework in silence. He kind of misses the less stressful days, but at least he gets to spend time with her anyway. 

He actually almost confessed one time. It was a stupid idea. She was talking about the stars on his ceiling again and he told her more about Yue (specifically, how her fingers danced on the keys of a piano or how her smile lit up a thousand faces or how her white hair shone like a snowy day). Suki brought up the reason why she'd taken tessenjutsu classes again because he asked more about it. She was okay with it, though. 

(He's quite amazed by her story, really. The girl stood up against the traditions of her old town of how women couldn't fight, ran away when she was old enough, and landed on Kyoshi Island. She'd learned fan combat ever since. Just to piss of her old home and because of spite. She's amazing.) 

Anyway, she was talking about how she'd never really had a boyfriend — suitors, crushes, those kind of things, but they never really liked her back. Well, at least _she_ thought so. 

Then he almost slipped, almost said the words, _Yeah? Well, I like you_. He's lucky he caught himself. He'd escaped with a funny look and a raised eyebrow. 

To be honest, Sokka doesn't know what will happen if he does tell her. He has to at some point, doesn't he? 

But when? 

He can't just knock on her door and say _"Hey, Suki! I like you! How 'bout that?"_ No. That's dumb. If he's going to do it, then it has to be at a special time. The perfect moment. When they're both happy and when he's on familiar ground — back at home. 

That settles it, then. He'll tell her when they go to home for Christmas break. Which coincidentally, is when this bet of theirs ends. He might just win after all. 

His phone rings suddenly, snapping him out of his thoughts. It's Katara. Her call has come at a good time; he's been planning to ask if it's okay for Suki to come. 

(Okay, so maybe it's kinda stupid that he'd already asked Suki to come with him before talking to his sister about it. But hey, he can't change the past.) 

"Katara, hey, how are you doing?" he asks casually. Katara will say yes. Probably. She likes Suki anyway, right? 

"Sokka!" his sister's voice cuts through the line. "I'm doing great, actually. Dad's been stressed lately, so I think that he'd be glad to see you soon. You _are_ coming over, right?" 

"Of course," Sokka replies, scratching the back of his neck. "And about that…is it okay if I bring someone with me?" 

"I guess," Katara says, but Sokka knows his sister better than that. She'll want to know who he's bringing. "Well, yeah, it's okay, but who—" 

"Thanks, sis!" he exclaims, grinning, cutting her off. 

"Sokka, who are you bringing?" she asks, and he can imagine her raising her eyebrow. "I didn't even know you had friends over there." 

He frowns. "Hey! I have friends!" 

"Really? I wonder who. Is it the weird guy who hangs out in the laundry room?" she teases. "And before you ask, I met that guy when I was visiting you before." 

"Katara, shut up," he grumbles, his cheeks stained red. 

She laughs. "Hey, now I remember! You _do_ have a friend! How is she?" 

"Who?" 

" _Suki_ , duh. Isn't she, like, your neighbor? Oh my gosh — are you guys still friends? Please tell me you're still friends. No, wait. Are you guys dating now? Is that why you're bringing her over?" 

"Shut up," he hisses. "I'm just bringing her over so she won't be lonely over Christmas break, okay? And we're not dating. Not yet, anyway." 

"So you _do_ like her! Sokka, that's great! When are you gonna ask her out?" 

Sokka's about to reply something about how he isn't (even though he totally is planning on asking her out), but there's static and arguing on the other side of the line before someone speaks again. 

"Sokka, man, Katara just told me about this girl you like. When are you asking her out?" Aang says, making Sokka's face even redder. 

"Aang—" 

"No, hold on, don't tell me. You're planning on asking her on Christmas, aren't you?" 

"Why, you little—" 

"I knew it!" his friend shouts. "Good luck! I can be your wingman, if you want. I'm great at it, you know, being a prodigy at elemental science and all that." 

"Yeah, yeah, no need to rub it in," he mutters. It never really bothered him to have a friend that's _really_ smart at sciences that specifically included the four elements (he's even nicknamed the _Avatar_ , jeez, the kid receives enough attention already), but _come on_. Give the guy a break. He's barely making it through college, to be honest, he's just glad he'd managed to make a (possible girl)friend to help him through it. "Look, I need to finish my homework. I'll call again later. And don't tell anyone, you got that? Or I'm telling everyone — especially Katara — whose picture you have taped to your pillow." 

"Yes, sir," Aang says nervously. Sokka sighs, ending the call. 

He lets out a breath, feeling like a weight was lifted off his shoulders now that he knows Suki is allowed to come. He closes his eyes— 

just to have someone knock on his door. 

Groaning, Sokka gets up on his feet and walks toward the door. His fingers touch the cold door knob, twisting it to the right. Then he meets the person on the other side. 

He manages a smile. "Suki, hey." 

She smiles back at him. "Are you okay? You were…pretty loud on the phone." 

Sokka freezes. Had she heard all the things he said? Did she know that he liked her? This couldn't be happening. 

"Don't worry!" she says, raising her hands in the air. "I didn't listen! At least, I didn't try to." 

He breaths out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thanks." Sokka eyes her clothes with curiosity — a large coat, boots, and a scarf. "Are you going out?" 

"Yeah," she says. "I was gonna go feel the snow, you know? And I was wondering if you wanted to come." 

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, of course! Just let me grab my jacket." 

(He didn't want to tell her and he didn't want to decline the invitation — it was _Suki_ , he couldn't say no — but Sokka hasn't really been a big fan of snow ever since…well, since his mom died. It was snowing that day and the ashes contrasted the snow, and he never thought it was possible. The Fire Nation killed his mother that day on their own land. On _their_ snow.) 

"Let's go," he says, locking his room. He stuffs his keys inside his pocket. 

"So," Suki starts, a smirk starting to form on her face, "what _does_ Aang have taped onto his pillow?" 

Sokka groans. "You heard that, huh?" 

She shrugs. "Bits and pieces. I tried my best not to." 

"I know," he says. 

Suki squeezes his hand. "It seemed like a pretty heated conversation." 

"Well, wait till you meet them next week," he replies, scratching the back of his neck. 

It takes him by surprise, actually, when she kisses his cheek. 

"I'm sure I'll love them," she reassures him. "Oh, and that's another point for me, I think. Better hurry up, Boomerang Boy, the bet ends next week. You're three points behind." 

"You better watch out, then, Suki of Kyoshi," he says. "I'm _so_ winning this thing." 

She rolls her eyes. "We'll see." 

They step out into the freezing cold, and Sokka grabs her hand. For warmth (yeah, right). 

"He has a picture of Katara." 

"Huh?" she asks, eyebrows furrowed. 

"Aang," he says. "Katara's picture is on his pillow." 

Suki laughs (and it sounds like bells and makes his stomach tie up in knots). "That's… _wow_." 

"I know." 

The snow might be cold against his face and every other part of his body, but where his fingers intertwine with Suki's — it's never been warmer.


	12. friends don't kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suki finally meets Sokka's friends.

**sokka – lllll ll**

**suki – lllll ll**

 

When she steps on the bus, Suki is glad to be finally out of the cold. Of course, the bus doesn't provide a lot of warmth, but it's still something. Bundled up in a scarf, a jacket, and a sweater, there isn't much left she can do to keep herself from shivering to death. Okay, so maybe she's exaggerating. Just a little.

She's glad it started to snow, really. She's always loved the cold simply because it's way better than the heat, but sometimes she finds it unbearable. One of those times is now. It's too cold for her liking, and it isn't even Christmas yet.

Sokka leads her to a seat in the middle of the bus, but it's not like it was hard to find, since the bus is pretty empty right now. She's thankful, of course, but it's a little surprising. She thought more people would want to come home for Christmas. Well, she heard some of the girls in her class talking about going back home, anyway.

He lets her take the seat next to window, muttering something about how it's her first time to go to the southern part of Ba Sing Se, so she should see the view of the way there. Suki doesn't really mind, though, about which seat she gets.

What does bother her though, is the thought of what her best friend's home looks like. This isn't his birth place, obviously. There aren't a lot of people named Sokka in Ba Sing Se, as far as she knows; it doesn't seem like it's a name from here, either. Probably from the South, but she's not sure. What she wants to know is how this place earned the name Home in his eyes, to be specific. That's what interests her. Maybe she'll ask him.

So she does.

"Why did you move?" she asks him, and he looks taken aback by her question. Shoot. She shouldn't have asked, she shouldn't have asked, she should not have asked, _she should not have asked—_

"Sorry, if it's a personal thing, I totally understand, you don't have to tell me," she adds quickly, biting her lip. "Sorry."

Sokka smiles a bit. "No, it's okay, I guess. But hey, how did you know I didn't originally live here?"

She shrugs, tucking a stay strand of hair behind her ear. "Your name's not common around Ba Sing Se, you know."

"Neither is yours."

"That's not the point," she says, waving him off. "Besides, you already know my _tragic backstory_ , you know how I ended up here."

"I wouldn't call it a tragic backstory," he says, grinning. "You're not a protagonist or anything. And if anything, I would totally be the hero of the story."

Suki rolls her eyes. "Sure," she replies sarcastically. "Now, answer the question. Why'd you move?"

It's his turn to shrug. Sokka tilts his head a little to the left, and faces front. He doesn't look at her whole he speaks. "I'm from the Southern Water Tribe, y'know, from the South Pole. Katara and I were fishing one day and we were fighting. We got distracted and got hit by a current that landed us in another part of the land we'd never seen before. And there was a boy lying down, almost turning blue — that was Aang.

"We took him in, asked him questions, like how he ended up there in the first place. The kid said he ran away, kinda like what you did. It turns out he was some sort of prodigy of elemental sciences and the Fire Nation wanted him to work for them for the war; but he was only twelve, still a kid, too young to work. But that didn't mean he wanted to stop studying.

"Somehow, the Fire Nation tracked him back to the South, but Katara — she didn't want them to take Aang. We had to leave everything behind, bring Aang to the North so he could have a teacher that'll teach him more about water, then we had to look for a fire and earth teacher—"

"What about air?" Suki interrupts, eyes wide with curiosity. There's a lot more to his story than she thought. "Sorry."

Sokka doesn't look a bit annoyed. "He'd already mastered that. So we looked for an earth teacher, and that's how we found Toph Beifong."

"The blind girl?" she asks, remembering her being mentioned in one of the stories he's told her.

"Yeah," he nods. "She's an earth science prodigy. Taught Aang everything she knows. The problem was the fire teacher. We were running out of options, but then out of nowhere, like a balloon in a cloud of smoke, or a monkey in a sea of people, or a—"

"Sokka," she interrupts again. "I get what you're trying to say, don't worry."

He blushes. "Yeah, okay. Sorry. Um. Where was I? Oh, right. Uh, so Zuko shows up. He's, like, the ex-prince of the Fire Nation that's been trying to catch Aang to ‘get his honor back’ or something like that. Turns out he was good now, and wanted to help defeat his father in the war. So he taught Aang all he knew about fire."

"And then you guys helped out in the war," she finishes for him, placing the pieces together. "Well, at least Aang did."

"Yeah," he says. "See? I told ya, I'm a hero of a story."

She crosses her arms. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Do I get a point for that?"

"Nope," she says hesitantly. "It doesn't count."

"Yeah, it does," he argues. "Wait, but I never answered your question. The original one."

She nods, adjusting her position on the seat. "Go on."

"We moved after the war — the whole gang did — before I finished high school. We're all neighbors now, but Katara and I live with our dad."

"Oh," she says simply. "Thanks for answering the question. That's…a lot to take in actually."

He rubs the back of his neck. "Heh, I guess we've both got messed up pasts, huh?"

"Yup," she nods. "True friendship."

(Internally, she winces at the word ‘friendship’ — could they be anything more? Would they ever be anything more than just friends?)

"Yeah, true friendship," he nods, his voice sounding dry.

Suki looks out the window, her heart suddenly feeling a lot more empty than before. She sighs, watching as the trees pass in front of her. When the bus stops because of traffic, she catches a glimpse of a couple holding hands as they walk down the street.

Could they ever be like that?

 

* * *

 

Suki stands in front of the door, Sokka standing next to her, bouncing excitedly like a puppy. She smiles to herself, giggling a little. He looks adorable.

"I can't believe we're here, Suki! We're here! _We're here_!"

"Yes, Sokka, I know. By the way you're acting, I think you're gonna faint once that door opens," she muses, hitting his shoulder lightly.

"Man, I'm gonna introduce you to everyone! Even Dad!" he exclaims.

The moment arrives and the door opens in front of them. It reveals a familiar face; a girl with long dark hair and bright blue eyes stands in front of them. Suki knows her instantly.

"Katara!" Sokka says, wrapping his sister with his arms. She looks happy to see him too.

"Sokka…can't…breathe," she croaks out. Her brother immediately lets go.

"Sorry," he mutters.

"I'm surprised you actually missed me," she says, crossing her arms. Her eyes glance at Suki. Katara holds out her arms for a hug. "Hey, Suki! How've you been?"

Suki steps forward to hug her. "Great, actually. Thanks for letting me come visit, it means a lot."

"Yeah, well, someone wouldn't stop bugging me about it," she says, smirking, her eyes briefly looking at Sokka.

Suki blushes, but smiles anyway. "He's pretty persistent, huh?"

"You have no idea. When we were traveling, all he kept talking about how he was right about this and that. Wouldn't shut up for a second."

"Hey!" Sokka protests, red-faced and pouting. "I am not like that. At all."

Katara rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say, brother dear. Now, come on inside. Everyone's already here."

Sokka's eyes and smile widen. He turns to Suki. "You ready to meet my family?"

"How bad can they be?"

They step inside and Suki has to take a step back to marvel at the decoration. Most of it is Christmas-themed already, but there's a very homey feeling to it anyway. It smells like freshly-baked cookies, too.

"Wow," she breathes out. "Sokka…"

Suddenly, a girl in green comes over, eyes gray. It must be Toph, Suki concludes. She looks a lot like the photos Sokka had showed her before.

"Took you long enough to get here," Toph says, arms crossed. "You almost made me miss you."

"I missed you, too, Toph," he says with a smile. The young girl smiles back.

Then she looks at Suki's direction, but she's not sure how she could tell she was there.

"I'm Toph, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you from Katara," she tells her. "You seem good. So, you guys dating yet or what?"

" _Toph_!"

Suki's face turns red, but she replies as calmly as she can. "No. We're just friends."

"That's what they all say," Toph mutters before walking away to the food table.

"She's a delight," Suki says humorously, nudging Sokka. "I like her."

Sokka groans. "Of _course_ you do." His head turns to the right, and without a question, his hand grabs hers and he's tugging her to the other side of the room.

"Aang, my man!" he calls out, waving a hand. "Meet Suki!"

She sees soon enough, that Aang is bald. Which she wasn't really expecting, but whatever. It fits him. And he seems like a good kid.

"Hey, there, Suki," Aang greets with a bow. "I've heard a lot of great things about you."

"Let me guess," she says. "From Katara?"

To her surprise, the boy shakes his head. He grins. "Nope. I got it from Sokka himself."

That causes her to blush (again).

"And what did he say exactly?" Suki asks, eyebrows raised.

Aang shrugs. "Nothing much, really. Basic stuff, like how you're the most beautiful girl in the world or how pretty your eyes are and your smile—"

He's interrupted by Sokka placing his head over Aang's mouth, clamped shut. Sokka mumbles something in Aang's ear. The younger boy turns red immediately.

"Oh…uh…I better…I'm going to go now if I don't want to be killed. Bye, Suki!" Aang says in a rush, disappearing down the hallway.

"Uh, Sokka? What did you say to him?"

"That's not important," he replies without a beat. Sokka looks around the room, looking a little sad. "Guess Dad isn't home yet."

"That's too bad," she says, grabbing his hand. Her fingers tingle at the contact. "I wanted to tell him how amazing his son was."

Sokka opens his mouth to reply, but is cut off by another loud voice.

"Are you two sure you aren't dating? Because it sure as hell looks like it!" Toph says very, _very_ loudly.

"TOPH!" Sock shouts one more, shooting her an annoyed look. She only stick out her tongue. "I think it's best if you meet Zuko now."

He drags her to the far corner of the room, where a boy stands tall, talking to Katara.

"Zuko, meet Suki. Suki, this is Zuko," Sokka introduces. Suki doesn't mean to stare at his scar for more than a second, but she catches herself doing it anyway. She looks away before he notices.

"Aang was right. You are pretty," he says with a small smile. "I hope Sokka doesn't annoy you too much, you guys look good together."

Before either Suki or Sokka can protest, he raises his hand to stop them.

"Yeah, yeah, I know and I've heard. You guys aren't together," he continues. "But I think you guys should be."

"Zuko, you can't just say that!" Katara exclaims, nudging his elbow. "It's their own choice."

But Suki is too stunned to say anything. If it meant anything at all, she thought that maybe it would be nice for them to be together, too. At least she already had one thing in common with Zuko.

She looks at Sokka, but doesn't say anything. He doesn't notice.

 

* * *

 

"Don’t you dare throw that snowball — _goddammit_!" Suki curses, feeling the cold snow on her leg. Oh, it is on.

She makes her own snowball and aims it right at his face. It works and lands right at her target.

"SUKI OF KYOSHI, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A SNOWBALL FIGHT! Sokka announces very loudly. "AND I AM SO GOING TO WIN!"

"OH, YEAH?" she exclaims in the same volume as him. "WINNER GETS TWO POINTS!"

"MAKE THAT _THREE_!"

"DEAL!"

Katara appears in the middle of them. "Is this a snowball fight?"

"Yes and I think it's best if you get out of the way for a while," Suki tells her as her fingers dig into the cold ground to start making her fort. Her fingers are numb, but she's only halfway through.

She grits her teeth, but she finishes her fort in less than a minute. It's not as perfect as she would want it to be, but it covers half of her body when she stands up. Her eyes glance at Sokka, and _damn_ , he's good at snowball fights, too, huh? Well, then. He's gonna have a run for his money.

Her fingers make snowballs as fast as she can, until the snow around her can barely cover the asphalt beneath her feet. She has a little more than fifty by the time Katara speaks.

"Now, I want a clean fight. No hurting each other. You may tackle each other, if it comes to it, but no punching or kicking. On the count of three, you may start throwing snowballs."

And so she does. With all the force she's got. She is going to win.

Once she's halfway with her pile of snowballs, she scoops all of them into her arms, teeth gritted. It's freezing to hold all of them and throw at the same time. Sokka looks surprised at her frontal attack. When she's a feet away from his fort, she slides and kicks it down. It crumbles and Sokka lets out a groan.

He hits her with even more force, but she's lucky enough to dodge some. One lands directly on her face and she wipes it away, eyes narrowed. Sokka only smirks.

"Guess the fan warrior isn't all invincible," he says proudly.

"I am going to take you _down_ , Boomerang Boy."

"Don't try to flatter yourself, Suki," he tells her, grinning. "You're not going to win."

She only throws a snowball at his face. Then she tackles him to the ground, glad that he's caught off guard.

Suki lands on top of him, arms at the side of his head, holding her upwards. She smirks — it's her turn now.

"You sure about that?" she says, grinning. His blue eyes stare right back up at her. It's only then she realizes how close their faces are. Just an inch away. He's close enough to kiss, maybe. Not that she'd ever be able to do that, right? (But she wants to. She really wants to. She really hopes she does, even at least once.)

They're _just friends_ and friends don't kiss each other. They go trick or treating together and they fake official letters to get an old man to shut up about his football game. They study together in coffee shops and talk to each other through walls. They have snowball fights and they tell stories about their lives.

They don't hold hands and they don't bring each other to their home during Christmas break just because they want to. They don't get teased about dating and they don't think about kissing each other just because the other's face is an inch away—

But that's what Sokka does, anyway.

Well, he kisses her on the nose, but hey, it's still a kiss. Suki is blushing madly and he catches her off guard long enough for him to flip them over so he's on top.

"I think I win," he says triumphantly, standing up and dusting the snow off his pants. Suki blinks once, twice, thrice.

She couldn't believe she let her guard down! She let him win and now he has three more points — they're tied even now! Christmas is five days away! She might be able to get a few points, but she'll need to make sure that it's enough to be ahead.

Sokka holds out his hand. Hesitantly, Suki takes it, standing up.

"I guess we're even now, huh?" he asks softly, but it's not enough to hide the pride in his eyes.

"You got lucky," she retorts. "That's not happening again, you dork."

"If I make you hot chocolate, will you stop being so bitter about it? I think I like sweet Suki better, you see," Sokka says, gesturing to the door. Katara is gone; it probably got too cold for her.

Suki considers it. "Okay. Come on, let's go inside, it's gotten even colder."

She grabs his hand, and pulls him inside. She isn't sure if her nose is tingling because of the cold or because of the kiss.

Maybe it's both.

 


	13. is he taller than me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka goes very late Christmas shopping.

**sokka – lllll ll**

**suki – lllll ll**

 

Sokka blinks and rolls over on his bed. The sunlight streams past his light blue curtains, hitting him squarely in the eyes. He groans, placing an arm over his eyes. It’s way too early for this. And he’s really tired, too.

It had taken forever to convince Aang to go back to his own house, which shouldn’t have been that hard because he lives right next door with Zuko and Iroh (they only lived together because Aang wasn’t over eighteen yet and didn’t know how to cook, much less live by himself). Honestly, he didn’t think Aang really missed him — he just wanted to spend more time with Katara. Which is dumb. But hey, if the kid was in love, Sokka didn’t really have the right to judge. He would do the same thing.

Speaking of love, Sokka’s not really sure what to feel as of this moment. Sure, he likes Suki, he’s falling for her without question...but did he _love_ her yet? Probably. She’s all he thinks about when he’s not stressing about school or thinking about a problem he has to solve. And he’d wanted to kiss her yesterday. Not that he hadn’t ever thought about it before. But this time was different. It was a...good kind of different, maybe. He’d almost done it, y’know? Almost kissed The Love of His Life (okay, so that might be an exaggeration, but whatever) and got away with it. Well, barely. He’d kissed her nose to win three points. (And preferably, her heart along the way.)

How hard would it be to steal it, exactly? How could he get her to notice him in a different way? Not friends — no, that would just totally suck. He knows that he’d planned to do it here — do the whole ‘ask her out and hope for the best’ type of thing. But who knows what her answer will be? Sokka couldn’t ask Katara; that would be like walking into a bear trap being fully aware of the consequences. Or Aang, either. He’d just get embarrassed. Toph would laugh at him without a doubt. And Zuko, he might just tell him, “That’s rough, buddy” like last time and walk away. That would be anything _but_ useful. 

Ugh. Why did this have to be so hard? Was it always this hard? Did every person have to go through this? He has vague memories of asking Yue out, and even that didn’t seem so hard. And this time — this time for sure, with Suki — he was going to make sure that nothing bad will happen to her. Not a single thing. Nope. Never. 

(But now he’s thinking: is asking her out even a good idea? With what happened with Yue, he can’t really trust himself to love someone again and actually _tell_ them that. Maybe this is dumb. Maybe he should just leave it at that. Maybe they should Just be friends. Yeah.

He  can’t bear the thought of it. Not, really. Because he really, _really_ likes her and you don’t meet a girl like her every dynasty. You don’t meet a girl that will fight for herself if she has to, a girl who’s not afraid of getting hurt, a girl who will laugh at his jokes and appreciate his puns when they’re just goofing around, and a girl with auburn hair and blue eyes that will tell him that she trusts him to dance in the rain with her and to share her past.)

Sokka gets up a couple of minutes later, wearing a jacket because it’s absolutely freezing right now. He finds himself alone in his kitchen, two empty plates left on the table. Dad and Katara, they must have left early. It had been great to see his dad again last night. He really missed him. 

Hakoda had seemed to liked Suki, too, after he introduced her. Which is good. Because he’s not sure what to think if his father didn’t like his best friend. Besides, who wouldn’t like Suki?

His father’s words echo in his ears. “That’s some girl,” he’d said when Suki was out of earshot.

Sokka replied, “Tell me about it.”

Now he grabs a bowl from the cabinet and starts pouring in some milk for his cereal. It seems untouched, his stack of cereal boxes, which gives off a warm feeling in his stomach. He knows Katara tries to hate his cereal, but he’d caught her eating it once. He just never mentioned it. Sokka sits at the empty table and starts to eat.

“Good morning,” a voice says. “You’re up late.”

Sokka wipes his mouth. “So are you.”

“Fair enough,” Suki replies, grabbing a bowl and sitting down on the table across him. She picks up the cereal box. “Can I have some?”

He nods. “Yeah, of course.”

“Hm, I’ve never heard of this brand before,” she comments while she adds milk. “Must be good if there’s, like, twenty boxes in the kitchen, right?”

Her words cause him to flush. “It’s my favorite.”

“I never took you for the,” she reads the name on the cereal box, “ _Fun & Yummy Cereal_ type.”

“Yeah, well, now you’ve learned my secret.”

“For what? Being whiny all the time?” she jokes.

“N-not that!” he sputters out. “I was going to go for the ‘why I’m super strong’ reply, but it’s too late now.” He takes a bite from his spoon. “Thanks to you.”

Sokka watches in anticipation as she takes a bite. “So? Is it good enough for your tastes, Suki of Kyoshi?”

She swallows. “It’s not that bad. What a surprise.”

“You’re lying,” he states.

“And how would you know?”

“I don’t,” he admits. “You can be honest with me.”

“It’s just cereal, Sokka.”

“See! I told you — you don’t like it!”

“I do like it! Stop overreacting!”

“Fine,” he grumbles. “But just so you know, this is your last chance. This cereal is the only thing you’re gonna be eating for breakfast for the rest of the visit.”

She takes another bite. “You don’t think I can handle it, do you?” Suki narrows her eyes. “I think I might love this cereal more than you do by the time this visit is over.”

Sokka gasps. “How dare you—”

Crossing her arms, Suki smirks. Pushing her bowl away from her, she says, “Would you look at that? My bowl’s already empty. How’s yours?”

His eyes widen. “How did you...?”

She shakes her head. “I told you I liked it.” Suki places her bowl in the sink. “Well, I’m going Christmas shopping with Katara in an hour, so see you later.”

With those words, she leaves, walking down the hall. Sokka is left with a bowl half-full of cereal and a gaping mouth.

Hakoda was right — _that’s some girl_.

 

* * *

 

Now he’s panicking because of three things. The first is that he hasn’t bought anyone Christmas gifts. The second is that he hasn’t bought _Suki_ a Christmas gift. And the third is that he’s completely, utterly, screwed.

It’s already a day before Christmas, and he’s frantically searching every store for something to give to people. It’s not that he forgot — he just procrastinated a little, since he’s not entirely sure what to get his friends. Or Dad. Or Suki.

Toph is easy; he bought her a bunch of space rocks (limited edition, thank you very much) for her to experiment and study with. He bought Zuko a book on the history and origins of people called the Sun Warriors and how they learned how to ‘firebend’ and redirect electricity. Aang was a little harder, but he bought the kid a bunch of marbles (for his stupid air marble trick) and a book called _How To Ask Your Best Friend Out On A Date For Dummies_ (though Sokka was almost tempted to buy it for himself). Katara was hard, plain and simple. It took him four hours to find the perfect necklace for her. One that reminded him of her had a blue pendant with water symbols on it. Of course he bought it. Then for his dad, he bought some shirts he think he’ll like. And Suki...well, that’s what he’s looking for right now.

It’s not easy to find her gift. What does she want anyway? It’s not like she ever answered when he asked, so really, he doesn’t know where to end up. The jewelry store where he bought Katara’s necklace didn’t seem to have anything for her. Or the bookstore where he’d bought Zuko and Aang’s gift. He doesn’t  want to by her clothes, either.

So Sokka finds himself stuck in a toy store. It’s the only place he hasn’t checked, and maybe — though he highly doubts it — he’ll find something for his best friend. 

Stuffed toys seemed out of the question, but maybe he should reserve it for Valentine’s Day (assuming that he’ll have the guts to ask her out by then). She didn’t seem to like toy cars or guns, either. Well, maybe she did, but he didn’t know. Huh. He’ll have to ask her when he gets back (hopefully, he’ll have a gift for her).  He sees a bunch of dolls in the corner, and checks that off his list. Will he even find anything for her?

His eyes survey the store one more time, just before he turns his heel to leave.

That’s when he sees it.

 

* * *

 

It’s past dinner when he arrives, exhausted and weary. Sokka hides the bag of gifts in his room. Hopefully, he’ll be able to keep all of it a secret. It can’t be that hard. It never has been. ( _Except_ for that one time Toph and Aang raided his room for cookies. He shudders at the memory.)

Katara is already preparing the food for the midnight feast, and he heard her mumbling something about how tomorrow’s a big day and all that. Hakoda is taking a nap in his room, and Sokka feels a little sad that he’s so tired on Christmas Eve. He worked too hard.

Sokka himself sits outside, on the steps leading to their house. It’s not that cold for once that he can see his breath, but he’s still bundled up in warm clothing. You can never be too careful.

The door opens behind him; he hears footsteps get closer.

“Where have you been?” Suki sits down next to him. “You were gone all day.”

Sokka shrugs. “Late Christmas shopping,” he replies. “ _Very_ late Christmas shopping.”

“Oh,” she says. “Why’d you take so long?”

“Good gifts are hard to find, y’know?” he says. 

“Yeah,” she replies, but she’s not looking at him anymore. “You know, I had a pretty hard time finding yours.”

“Me?” he clarifies, shocked. “How come?”

 She only smiles. “Good gifts are hard to find, y’know?” she repeats. 

“Touché,” he says, laughing.

“It’s a beautiful moon,” Suki says, staring up at the sky. 

A part of him remembers Yue and her love for the moon. The way her room was decorated with it, and the way her hair reminded him of it. There’s a pain in his chest for a moment, and it _hurts so damn much to have lost her_. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She didn’t.

He glances at Suki, and his heart hurts a little less. Just a little. “Yeah, it really is.”

Because Yue really was beautiful in her own way. And Suki is, too.

“It’s so hard to lose someone you care about,” he says quietly. “I couldn’t protect Yue. I don’t want anything like that to ever happen again. Especially not to you.”

“It’s not your fault, Sokka. You know that,” Suki replies softly. “I almost lost someone I care about.  He didn’t die, I just thought he was going to leave for a while. I felt like I only had a few days to get to know him, but it was really a few months. He was smart and brave and funny.”

“Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?” he asks her, a bit jealous. (Just a bit.)

“No, he’s about your height,” she responds, looking like she’s about to laugh.

“Is he better-looking?”

“It _is_ you, stupid!” she exclaims.

“Oh,” he says, suddenly feeling very dumb. When she thought he was going to leave, she must have meant for Christmas break. He’s glad he brought her along. And did she really mean all those things she said about him?

It’s now when he realizes how close their faces are. Really close. If he just leaned a little forward—

“I can’t,” he says suddenly, opening his eyes. He couldn’t do this to Suki. He wouldn’t be able to protect her. He can’t hurt her.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. She looks sad.

Sokka stands up. “No, you shouldn’t be.” 

He leaves, a hollow feeling in his chest. They could’ve kissed. He could’ve asked her out.

But he didn’t.


	14. i think it’s sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for them to finally talk and realize some things.

**sokka – lllll lll**

**suki – lllll lll**

Suki hasn't slept. It's not like she has to, anyway, since the midnight feast is in a couple of minutes and Katara will be knocking on her door to tell her so. She just hopes she doesn't have to talk to someone. 

And that someone is Sokka. 

It's not his fault, she knows that. It's hers. The guy wasn't over Yue yet; Suki could understand that. But she still tried and now she's stuck in an awkward situation with her best friend. She doesn't want that. She never has. 

But they were so close. And look where they are now. Hopefully, they'll still be friends when this _thing _— whatever it is, she's not so sure anymore — blows over. Maybe he'll still talk to her.__

But — Sokka _liked_ her, didn't he? Now _that_ realization shook her until her very core. Because he wouldn't have _almost kissed_ her if he didn't, right? And all the flirting? That meant he liked her this whole time and she was too blind to see it. But now she isn't. _She isn't._

Thing is, he's not over Yue. Suki can't blame him — the girl sounds amazing and wonderful. She'd seen pictures, too. Maybe they could've been friends, Yue and her. 

Suki sighs and sits up. She stares ahead. What is she going to do? She can't have Sokka not talking to her for the rest of her life. She doesn't think she could live with it. And them being neighbors? No way. She'd rather have them being friends that never kissing at all. 

There's a knock on the door and the sound echoes throughout her room. Katara comes in, holding a piece of cloth in her hand. She's wearing a dark blue sweater, decorated with a Christmas tree. 

"Hey, Suki!" she says with a smile. "Merry Christmas!" 

"It's not Christmas yet," Suki replies. "Is it time to eat already?" 

Katara nods a little. "In a couple of minutes, we'll be starting. But I didn't really come for that." 

Suki raises an eyebrow. Did she know about the Thing? (Until she figures out what to call what just happened without cringing, she will call it the Thing.) Did Sokka tell her? "What is it?" 

"Here," Katara hands her the green cloth she was holding. It turns out to be a sweater — she thinks it's supposed to be one of those ugly Christmas sweaters thing, but it's way too pretty to call it ugly. It's an emerald shade of green, with a reindeer on it. Embroidered on the top are the words "Fleece Navidad," which can't have been a more terrible pun. 

"I made one for everyone," Katara adds. "Do you like it?" 

Suki puts it on. "It's amazing. No one's ever done this for me before. Thank you." 

Katara smiles, looping an arm with Suki's. "Let's go eat." 

It takes a while for everyone to come, but they start trickling in little by little. Aang comes first, unsurprisingly, followed by Zuko and an old man she doesn't recognize. He must be Zuko's uncle, she thinks, watching him ask for tea. Toph comes next, along with her parents. She looks happy, for once. They all come in sweaters, too. Suki looked at her own sweater. Huh. So that's what being welcomed felt like. 

Suki settles in next to Katara on the table. It's a wonder how everyone fits on the table, even with her to add to the holiday. But there's still one person missing— 

never mind. 

Sokka walks into the room, smiling. His eyes scan the table, but they stop when they land on her. They dim a little and his smile falters. She wonders if he's thinking about the Thing. 

"Come on, Sokka! Sit down, I'm hungry!" Aang calls, gesturing the the empty seat next to Suki. Here we go. 

Sokka sits down next to her. "Aang, _I'm_ the meat and sarcasm guy. Stick with your twinkle toes, alright?" 

Suki smiles, but looks down. She sighs softly. 

"I don't know how to tell you this, but Katara made us matching sweaters," Sokka tells her softly. 

He's talking to her. Okay. That's good. 

Suki raises her eyebrows, looking at his sweater. It's the same one, but blue. "Of course she did." 

Sokka smiles. "Yeah. Of course she did," he replies softly. Hesitantly, he says, "Look, Suki—" 

"Let's eat!" Toph exclaims, interrupting Sokka. He scowls. "Christmas isn't gonna wait for you confess your undying love, Sokka!" 

Sokka goes red all over, but he doesn't say anything. 

Glancing at her friend one last time, Suki wonders what he was going to say. Maybe he'd continue later, but a part of her doesn't really want to find out. She takes a bite from her food. (It's really good, someone give Katara a pat on her back.) 

Their fingers brush for a second when she's putting down her fork and she freezes. Sokka doesn't seem to notice. Like always. 

* * *

A little later, Suki retreats to her room to get her gifts. When she comes back to the living room, everyone is already starting to give their gifts. She gives her gift to Katara first. 

"It's not much, but I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me," she says, watching Katara read the scroll on different water techniques. She'd found it in an antique store down the street. 

"Not much? This is — I don't know how to describe it, but Suki, this is amazing! Thank you!" Katara wraps her arms around her. She smiles. "I'm definitely making sure you get a better sweater next year." 

Suki laughs. "No, it's okay. I…" she replies, glancing at Sokka for a moment, eyes lingering on his matching sweater. "I like this one." 

Katara nods, hugging her again. "Hey, I know my brother can be an idiot, but he's worth it, I promise." 

"I know he is." Suki looks down. "Hey, I'm going to give out my other gifts. I'll talk to you later." 

After she gives her gifts to Aang, Zuko, and Toph, Suki stumbles into the old man who came in with Zuko earlier. 

"Ah, you must be Suki," Iroh says. "I've heard some things about you from my nephew and Aang." 

"Are they good things?" she asks. 

Iroh gives her a smile. "Yes," he replies. "Now, I'm no expert, but I could see that you're having some trouble with the Sokka boy over there." 

Suki blushes. "It's nothing," she answers quickly. "Nothing at all." 

"My dear, I haven't known you for long, but I wish the best of luck to you." 

Suki smiles a little. "Thank you. I think I'll need it." 

Holding her breath, she decides that it's time to talk to him. About the Thing. They've got some stuff to figure out badly. 

She finds Sokka out on the porch for the second time. It's quiet and cold outside. 

"Merry Christmas," she cheers as happily as possible, handing his wrapped gift. 

Sokka laughs softly. "That's the best greeting you've got?" 

She rolls her eyes. "Just accept the gift, you goof. I spent good money." 

She watches in anticipation as Sokka unwraps her gift, holding her breath. 

"No way," he mumbles. "No way. Suki, this is a limited and signed copy! How did you get this? How did you know I even wanted it? Where did you find it?" 

She shrugs. "Um, I can't tell you or that would be no fun, I bought it, and I know you love Star Wars, so I thought this would be a good gift. That answer your questions?" 

Her gift is a frame full of different pictures from all the Star Wars movies, with the signatures of the main cast. She'd been lucky enough to find it at a merchandise store, really. She just hoped he liked it. 

"So I take it that you like the gift?" she asks, arms crossed. 

"I love it," he says, hugging her. Sokka lets go. "Thank you. Really. I love it. It's going on my wall back at college." 

She laughs softly. "I'm glad you like it, Sokka." 

"Now it's your turn!" he exclaims, handing out a wrapped box. "It's not as great as yours, though." 

Suki shakes her head. "I'll like it, don't worry." 

Fingers careful, she unwraps the gift wrap. It's plastic and cardboard, but she's not so sure what it is. Then she does. Her heart melts. 

"You got me glow-in-the-dark stars?" Suki asks softly. Immediately, she wraps her arms around his shoulders and hugs him. "Thank you so much." 

"Hey, now we can have matching ones on our ceiling. I can help you put it up, if you want," he offers, smiling. 

"I'd like that." 

Suki stands in front of him, holding her breath as she carefully plans the words she's about to say. "Listen, I'm sorry about last night. We were talking...and saying things...and I just got carried away and before I knew it—" 

Sokka presses his lips against hers before she can finish her sentence, but she's not complaining because _wow_. It's a lot better than she ever imagined, and his lips are soft against hers and she wraps her arms around his neck just to get closer. 

"You talk too much," he mumbles. She kisses him again anyway. 

When they pull away, Sokka says, "I was trying to say I was sorry earlier. You know, for hurting you. I was thinking about Yue and I couldn't let what happened to her happen to you because maybe it's me, y’know? Maybe I'm just bad luck, and wrong in all the ways. I mean, I'm not a prodigy like Aang or Katara or Toph or Zuko, and I can't really do much. Just reflexes and skill. And I kind of suck at this whole love thing, too. Well, what I'm trying to say is that I'm just really, really sorry, okay?" 

"And you say _I_ talk too much," she muses. Sokka turns a little pink. "But it's my fault, too. I can take care of myself, but I didn't realize how much you still cared about Yue. I'm sorry. It's just…" she laughs softly because she feels so _dumb_ right now. 

"I can't believe I like you, y’know? The first day I met you, you were the most annoying person on the planet and now…well, now I just kissed you. You're my best friend, Sokka. You're not going to lose me." 

They hug for the third time that night. She savors each one. 

"You're not going to lose me, either," Sokka says, smiling. 

She kisses him again, just because she can. He looks a little surprised this time. Suki laughs. 

"Eight points for Suki," she declares. "Which reminds me, now that it's Christmas, I think it's fair to say that I won the bet." 

Sokka frowns. "What? That's not fair! I kissed you first! I think that deserves at least two points." 

She crosses her arms. "Well, you didn't say anything." 

"Suki, it totally counts," he says. "It does. I didn't put that mistletoe for nothing." 

"You put _mistletoe_?" she asks, bewildered. "Are you kidding me?" 

"I was being careful! You know, just in case!" Sokka protests. "How was I supposed to know that I'd actually do it?" 

"Fine! You get a point for that kiss," she says, rolling her eyes. 

"Good. Now we're tied." 

Suki bursts out laughing at his frown. He looks confused. 

"You're laughing at me? Really?" 

"No, it's not that," she says in between fits of laughter. When she controls herself, she asks, "Is that what a couple fight feels like?" 

That causes Sokka to laugh along with her. 

"Yeah, I guess so," he says. "Man, we're messed up." 

"Yeah," she agrees. Suki intertwines her fingers with his. "Hey, Sokka?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Do you want to go to the movies with me?" she asks, looking at his eyes. 

"W-what?" 

"Movies, you and me. How does that sound?" she asks again, a bit more nervous. What if he's not okay with it? 

He nods, to her relief. "As long as you go to dinner with me after the movie." 

She grins. "Deal." 

Well, that went a lot smoother than she thought it would. 

* * *

"Check out my Appa sculpture," Aang says, showing a rough-looking and snow version of his dog. 

"Not bad, baldy," Toph comments, "but I've been working on something, too. You're gonna love this." 

Next to her is an snowy outline of Ba Sing Se. It looks really cool. 

"Whoa! Wow, you've even made a little Earth King and Bosco," Aang exclaims, smiling and pointing to the little statues of the King and his bear. 

Toph crosses her arms. "Try and top _that,_ Sokka." 

A little to her left, Sokka is working hard on his own creation. Suki's isn't sure what it is yet. 

"Ta-da!" he exclaims, revealing a grotesque looking sculpture with dried leaves for hair, a star-shaped rock for a nose, and more rocks for eyes and a mouth. Yup. She's not sure what it is at all. 

"Is that a blubbering blob monster?" Aang asks, raising an eyebrow. 

"No, it's Suki!" Sokka replies defensively. Suki feels honored, to be honest. 

Aang looks surprised, and both him and Toph burst out laughing in shock. 

"Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this," Toph says, smirking. 

"I think it's sweet," she tells them. 

Sokka slides next to her on the blanket and plants a kiss on her cheek. 

"But it doesn't even look like you," Aang says. 

"You're just jealous that Katara doesn't do that, Twinkle Toes," Toph replies, rolling her eyes. 

"Oh, leave him alone, Toph," Katara says, crossing her arms. "I mean, it's better than what Zuko is doing. He can't even build a snowman." 

"Hey! I can hear you!" Zuko shouts from near the house. Next to him is a half-made snowman. 

Suki laughs. Having a family feels nice, she decides. It's better back in her old town, where no one cared about her. "Thanks for letting me come with you here." 

"Of course," he says. "I wouldn't have it any other way. And the others seem to like you." 

She glances at her new friends. "Yeah. I like them, too." 

"I don't have any competition, do I?" he jokes, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"I don't think so," she teases. "I don't know them all that well yet, you see." 

"Suki!" 

"Relax, Boomerang Boy. I like you, remember?" she says, tucking a stray strand of hair. 

"Good," he says, "because I like you, too." 

"You still up for the movie later?" she asks, holding his hand. Sokka's fingers stroke her thumb. 

"As long as I'm with you," he replies with a cheeky grin. "You're gonna have the best dinner of your life, Suki of Kyoshi." 

"I'll be the judge of that," she says, smirking. "Though I highly doubt you're lying." 

"My lady, I would never lie to you." 

Suki kisses his cheek, grinning from ear to ear. 

"You mean a lot to me, y’know?" 

Sokka…he cares about her. She'd do anything for him, just to make him happy. And she'd come back to him, again and again. He'd do the same and she knows that. He's her boomerang and she's his. They're best friends and they stay up watching Star Wars because they can and they go on cheesy dates and laugh at each other. He's her sun and she's his moon, the yin to her yang, and Suki likes it that way. That's when she realizes one thing: she loves him. 

It might be his smile or his words or his jokes, she's not sure, but she loves him. They might be too young to know for sure, but frankly, she doesn't really care. He's her world as of this moment. He's her _home_ — one she never thought that would exist. He was a nuisance before, and now he makes her head spin and her heart beat faster than running ever did. 

(He's made her really cheesy, hasn't he?) 

Home is where your heart is. And Sokka is where her heart is, through thick and thin. She'll wake up every morning and realize that for the first time in years, she's not alone. She's not running away from her old home anymore, and she's not in Kyoshi, where training was the only thing keeping her going. She's with Sokka. That's where she wants to be. 

"You mean a lot to me, too."


	15. epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They visit an old and new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! this is a shoutout to [frostystuffs](http://archiveofourown.org/users/frostystuffs/pseuds/frostystuffs) for all her comments and support! thank you all those who ever commented as well! i didn't think i would ever be able to finish this, so thank you (again)! <3

**boy, when you know, you’ll know**

 

They stand in front Yue’s grave, the wind blowing softly and the snow falling around them like puzzle pieces. Sokka’s arm is around Suki’s shoulders, and he feels like crying. There’s a sudden realization of how much he misses her and wants her back. Maybe he’ll always feel like that, even when he’s old and on his own deathbed. At least Suki might be at his side to help him. Like she is now.

Watching her boyfriend cry, Suki knows that the only thing she can do is be there for him. She wraps an arm around him as he lands on his knees, tears streaming down on his face. The cold hair hits her cheek, but she doesn’t complain. She’ll do it for him.

Sokka wipes his eyes with the scarf wrapped around his neck, feeling a little embarrassed. “Sorry,” he apologizes.

“Don’t be,” Suki replies instantly, biting her lip. “It’s reasonable to cry.”

“I just miss her,” he says. “A lot. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to not cry when I think about her.”

Suki hugs him because she knows he needs it. He’s thankful, but really, when is he not thankful for her being there for him? She cares about him and that’s what makes him okay again.

“Do you…” he trails slowly, “do you want to talk to her?”

It’s a dumb idea; he knows that, but it’s worth a try. He has a feeling that if Yue were alive, she and Suki would be friends. That would be nice.

(Of course, if Yue was still alive, he probably wouldn’t be with Suki in the first place. But he doesn’t like to think about that. It isn’t good to dwell on the past and what might’ve happened, anyway.)

Suki kneels in front of the gravestone without hesitation. To be honest, she’s not really sure on what she’s going to say. “Hey, Yue. We weren’t friends or anything, but I like to think we would’ve been. You know, if you were still alive. Okay, that was kinda harsh. I mean...from Sokka’s stories, you seem pretty amazing. And I’m sorry about what happened to you, too. I’ve tried convincing Sokka that it’s not his fault, but you know how stubborn he can be. He still loves you, you know. I think he always will. At least, I hope he does. It’s good to know you loved him back. Thank you for that. I don’t think he’d be the person I know now if it wasn’t for you. You mean a lot to him, and he means a lot to me. So, thank you.”

She places a white flower on the ground, intertwining her fingers with Sokka afterwards. “I think it’s your turn to talk to her. You actually knew her.”

“I miss you. I miss you a lot. I wish you never left, but you did, and there’s nothing I can do about it. So I think I’ll just thank you. For being a great person and hanging out with me when Katara and Aang left me alone to do water science stuff. For laughing at my jokes and doing activities with me. Suki was right, I think. I wouldn’t be the person I am now without you. I’ve learned to let go and understand. I’ve learned that I can’t control what happens and I can’t always protect those I love, even when they can protect themselves,” he says quietly, and squeezes Suki’s hand with a smile. “It’s rough, but I won’t forget you. I never will.”

The couple stand up together. Suki wraps her arms around Sokka, closing her eyes and letting him know that he’s not alone. Stars don’t shine as bright when they’re alone, and there’s nothing she loves more than watching him shine.

“Do you want to watch Star Wars after this?” she asks, voice soft. “We could have a movie night.”

The corners of his lips tug at a smile. “Yes, please.” With one last glance at the grave, Sokka whispers into the air, “Merry Christmas, Yue.”

The two leave the cemetery quietly, the howl of the wind behind them. It’s kind of a relief, to have visited her again. It feels like a weight’s just been lifted off his shoulders. He doesn’t seem to be so sad and depressed about it. He feels...happy.

“Thanks for coming with me, Suki,” he tells her, rubbing his thumb against hers. “It means a lot.”

“I wanted to meet her, anyway,” she replies lightly. “No one should spend Christmas alone.”

 _“You_ were,” he points out.

“But I didn’t.” She swings their hands back and forth. “I had you, the guy who makes bad jokes about meat all the time.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Yeah, you tell bad jokes about plenty of other topics,” she retorts sarcastically, waving her hand dismissively.

“I know!” he exclaims. Suki rolls her eyes. Suddenly, he stops walking. “Suki, I can’t believe I forgot! Why don’t we just watch the holiday replay of Star Wars in the cinema?”

“Because,” she drawls out, “all the tickets are sold out. There’s no way we’ll make it in.”

“Suki, what are the chances you can get us inside?”

Her face turns serious. “I’m an elite warrior who’s trained for many years in the art of stealth.” Suddenly, she grins. “I think I could get us inside!”

They continue walking, once pausing because Sokka had to tie his shoelaces and another because he thought of a new joke.

“What does the cabbage merchant use to fix his cabbages?” he asks. “A cabbage patch!”

Suki only groans, face palming herself. “I don’t know why I’m dating you.”

“Because you love me?” he offers.

“Maybe.” Suki starts walking again, leaving a wide-eyed Sokka behind her.

“Wait, are you serious?” he asks when he catches up. Sokka’s heart beats fast in his chest.

She shrugs. “Did I stutter?”

“You said ‘maybe,’ that could mean _anything!”_

“What do you think the answer is?”

“Yes?” he says hopefully.

Suki kisses his cheek. “Yes, Sokka. I love you.”

He hugs her, kissing her forehead. “Well, I love you, too.”

“Good,” she says, grinning.

“Although I still have one very important question,” Sokka says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Promise you’ll answer it.”

She sighs. “Fine.”

“Suki of Kyoshi,” he begins, taking a deep breath.

“Sokka of the Water Tribe,” she counters, smirking. “Come on, just ask already.”

He closes his eyes for a moment, then opens them again. He releases a breath, preparing his next words in the back of his mind.

“Did it hurt?”

Suki doesn’t blink. Without hesitation or protest (although she vividly remembers the first time he asked her the same question), she answers, “No.”

Sokka’s face falls. She grabs his hand again and smiles. It makes up for it all.

“Because you were there to catch me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you!!! hmu at superishs.tumblr.com!!


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